Coleen Skeabeck eliminated from 'The Biggest Loser: Families'

After a madcap week that featured the return of the 80's, a heated feud amongst two Blue team members and several emotional highs and lows, Coleen Skeabeck became the sixth individual competitor eliminated from The Biggest Loser: Families during last night's broadcast on NBC.
 
"I wouldn't trade this experience for anything and I'm so thankful for this," Coleen, a 23-year-old receptionist from Cleveland, OH, said following her elimination. "It is the greatest gift that I have been handed in my life.... It just shows you that you really have to live each day to its fullest and really take advantage of every single thing you can in life, and to never, never let life pass you by because that's what I was doing for so long."


"So I'm gonna go ahead and make the rest of my life as amazing as I can make it, because I deserve it," she added.

The Biggest Loser: Families' tenth episode began with the remaining contestants reacting to the surprising vote by Amy Cremen, a 26-year-old purchasing department representative from Auburn Hills, MI, to eliminate fellow Blue team member Brady Vilcan instead of Black team member Michelle Aguilar, a 26-year-old assistant director from Ft. Worth, TX, at the conclusion of the show's previous episode.

"I'm still in shock that Amy's vote was for Brady in the elimination room. I was really thinking that she was gonna steer in the same direction as her other teammates and pick Michelle," Coleen said after the elimination.

"I know that everybody was shocked," said Amy of why she voted the way she did. "I was gonna stay 'Blue true,' and then the opportunity came up to take out the second-highest [weight loss percentage] in the house, and the highest percentage is me. I wanna be The Biggest Loser [winner], and with Brady here I don't know it if would happen."


While Michelle expressed gratitude to Amy and said that the Black team would support her if she needed it, Amy's partners on the Blue team were not as happy with her decision.

"I feel like the Blue team should be frolicking in the Garden of Eden, but that stupid, backstabbing bitch bit the apple and f***** it all up for us," said Blue team member -- and Brady's wife -- Vicky Vilcan, a 37-year-old anesthetist from Houma, LA.

"If I were Amy, I'd be a little bit nervous," said Ed Brantley, a 31-year-old chef from Raleigh, NC. "Vicky's crazy man. She'll claw your frickin eyes out."

The following morning at 6AM, Vicky created a sign and put it on her door before leaving for the gym to start working out before any of the other contestants. The sign read "Revenge. Fool me once shame on you. Fool me twice shame on me. I will not rest until that lying bitch is out of this house" and had a picture of Vicky with Brady underneath it.

"I'm just very determined and I'm not falling below the yellow line," Vicky said. I'll do everything in my power to not fall below the yellow line."


When the Blue team -- minus Amy -- met with trainer Bob Harper later that day, Bob was shocked to learn that Amy had voted for Brady.

"I really did think that there was going to be five blue shirts in this house today," Bob told his team.

Bob also noticed that Vicky's anger could be detrimental to her progress in the game and "bite her in the ass" if she became too focused on revenge, and decided to go and find Amy to find out why she had voted against her team.

Amy told Bob she had been planning to vote with the team until the last minute and felt that she had not lied to her teammates as much as she had suddenly decided to look out for herself.

Bob supported Amy's decision, telling her that learning to put yourself first was part of "what you're supposed to learn here."


"Now, all of the sudden, you've put yourself at the top of your priority list. I respect that," he told Amy before adding that he would still support her.

Following the meeting, the contestants were led outside where they were met by The Biggest Loser host Alison Sweeney, who stepped out of a DeLorean decked out in 1980's clothing. The contestants then learned that they would find their own 80's clothing in their rooms and would be taking part in an 80's style workout.

After changing into their clothes -- which consisted of head bands, tight shorts, fishnet stockings, and ripped T-shirts -- the teams separated and took place in separate 80's-themed workouts, with Jillian Micheals and the Black team taking breakdancing lessons and Bob and Blue team doing step aerobics.

"Getting off the ranch and getting to do this whole 80's-themed workout, it's definitely been so
much fun, and I definitely was sweating and I think I still am," said Coleen afterward.

While Bob tried to use his workout to ease tensions between Vicky and Amy, he failed to get either one to talk or make any kind of amends to each other.


"Being in the room with Vicky and Amy, it's not a good feeling right now," Bob said after the workout.

Following the workout, the contestants met with Alison for their Reward Challenge. For the challenge the contestants were told that they would be standing underneath buckets of water containing half of their body weight that they would be holding up straight with rope on a pulley. As they held the buckets up straight, they would be asked questions about health issues in the 1980's.

If the contestant buzzed in and got the question right, they would be able to add an additional 25% of weight-in water to any other contestant's bucket. If the contestant answered the question incorrectly, they would have 25% of their weight-in water added to their bucket.

The last contestant to prevent their water bucket from tipping and spilling on them would win wireless stereo headsets with audio workouts from Bob as well as the choice of either $5,000 in cash or the chance to add one pound to any other contestant's weight at the upcoming weigh-in.

"Winning today's challenge is very important. All I can think about is giving a one pound penalty to
somebody if I win it," Vicky said prior to the challenge.


However, Vicky was unable to win the challenge as a series of questions eventually left Renee Wilson, is a 46-year-old event manager from Ft. Worth, TX, and her daughter Michelle as the two remaining contestants. After Michelle offered to buy her mother a designer handbag if she agreed to let go, Renee complied and gave the challenge win to Michelle.

"I think my Mom was pretty obviously gonna win," Michelle said after the challenge. "But I think she also knows she getting a handbag, so who could be upset about that."

Alison informed Michelle that she would be able to make her decision between the one pound penalty and the $5,000 prize at the weigh-in later that week.

With the prospect of a one pound penalty now working against his team, Bob made one more attempt to convince Vicky to bury the hatchet with Amy and reunite the Blue team so that --assuming at least one of the three Black team members ended up below the week's yellow line-- their four votes would ensure a Black team member went home next.

"At this point in the game you have got to let all that go and have another talk [with Amy]," Bob told Vicky.

As the teams began their last chance workouts, Jillian realized that her team still did not have numbers on their side and would have to remain out of the bottom two in order to remain safe. As a result, she worked her Black team extra hard with a spin class.


Similarly, Bob led an intense workout as well and called the upcoming elimination a "crucial" one if the Blue team wanted to maintain its strength in numbers.

Prior to the weigh-in, Coleen received a boost when she tried on her "goal closet item," a medium size dress, that fit her perfectly. After wearing a size 2XL before arriving at the ranch, Coleen excitedly showed off the dress to Michelle and Renee.

"If you had told me nine weeks ago that I'd be fitting into my 'goal closet item,' I probably would've just laughed, and laughed, and laughed and laughed because it just seemed so impossible," she said with a smile.

Amy also took a moment before the weigh-in to apologize to Vicky for her vote last week and cited a lack of trust she had as a newcomer to the Blue team as one of the reasons for her vote.

"I haven't been with you guys... for like this entire time and, it hurts for me to say it, but I didn't trust you when you said you would save me," Amy told Vicky. "I was afraid that wasn't true so that is what I needed to do at that second."

"It's gonna be very hard for me to trust you again because that's just me, I don't trust people," Vicky responded.


Afterward, Vicky said that despite their conversation, she still expected Amy to vote with the Black team.

The contestants arrived at the weigh-in that evening and were told that the two contestants with the lowest percentage of weight loss would fall below the yellow line and be subject to elimination from votes by the other contestants.

Prior to the first weigh-in, Michelle told Alison that she had decided to use her one pound penalty on Vicky instead of taking the cash prize.

"I'm not surprised at all," Vicky said, before saying that she was confident she had worked hard enough in the gym to offset the penalty.

Amy came in first place at the weigh-in, losing 8 lbs. for a weight loss percentage of 4.42%.

Michelle followed in second place, also losing 8 lbs. for a percentage of 4.12%.


Ed followed in third place, losing 11 lbs. for a percentage of 4.03%.

Renee finished in fourth place, losing 8 lbs. for a percentage of 3.72%.

Heba finished in fifth place, losing 7 lbs. for a percentage of 2.94%.

Because of the penalty, Vicky needed to lose more than 6 lbs. to stay out of the bottom two, but fell just short as she lost exactly 6 lbs. for a percentage of 2.59%.  Afterward, Alison informed Vicky after that, had it not been for the one pound penalty, Vicky would have avoided falling below the yellow line.

Coleen finished in last place, losing only 3 lbs. for a percentage of 1.76%.

"It's like a punch in the face," a teary-eyed Coleen said after seeing her weight loss for the week,


Alison said that, just like last week's elimination, there would be no deliberation period and the contestants would head straight to the elimination room to discuss who they would vote for.

"So it comes down to Amy, the girl I have called a backstabbing bitch about 10 times this week. I would be very surprised if she keeps me here," Vicky said prior to the elimination vote. "All I have now is the trust in my team, and the trust that Amy told me I could count on her, so I'm hoping now that she'll do the right thing."

In the elimination room, both Coleen and Vicky plead their cases and Michelle and Renee spoke in defense of Coleen.

"I think everyone understands my reasoning of why I still wanna be here," Coleen said. "I learned from my Dad, and everyone has seen where my dad got, and it is literally step-by-step, shadow-by-shadow that I'm walking [with him] and I'm doing my best. I've come so far in breaking that, but I want to make sure I'm 100% before I leave."

"I respect everything that Coleen, and Michelle and Renee are saying. But the fact of the matter is I've got two children and I work 60-hours-a-week, so how much weight am I gonna lose once I get home? I mean, if we're playing this game and playing for yourself, you have to look at that," Vicky responded. "I want to be here, and I want everyone a this table to know that. I mean, I'm a fighter and I don't want to leave."

After having each contestant vote in secret, Alison had them reveal their choice one-by-one.


The first four votes were split down team lines, with Michelle and Renee voting for Vicky while Ed and Heba voted for Coleen.

With the deciding vote once again in her hands, Amy again noted how difficult the decision had been.

"It's hard to see people leave every week, and as the weeks go by it gets harder and harder [because] we're a family," Amy said. "I've gotten to know these girls so much here and it came down to, in my head, the threat thing. And they're both a huge threat to me."

However unlike last week, Amy revealed that she had voted with the Blue team for Coleen, eliminating her from the competition.

In the post show update, it was revealed that Coleen had dropped her dress size from a 22 to a 10 and had taken up running with her father. It also added that she hoped to drop her weight down to 147 lbs. by the show's finale.






About The Author: John Bracchitta