'The Biggest Loser: Glory Days' ousts Blake Benge for good, sends Damien Woody to Comeback Canyon

The Biggest Loser: Glory Days eliminated one contestant for good and sent another to Comeback Canyon during Thursday night's NBC broadcast of the reality weight-loss competition's sixteenth-season. 


Blake Benge, an 18-year-old student and former high school soccer and track standout from San Clemente, CA, was ousted from the competition for good after losing the weigh-in at Comeback Canyon against fellow contestant Jackie Pierson, a 36-year-old clinical care coordinator and former high school basketball MVP from Pacifica, CA.

At Comeback Canyon, veteran trainer Bob Harper works with two contestants, who get the boot from the ranch, every week. At the end of each week, there's a separate weigh-in after which the person with the highest percentage of weight-loss gets to stay at the canyon for another week and the losing contestant must go home for good.

Eventually, Bob will take only one contestant back to the ranch so they can rejoin the original competition and resume competing for the $250,000 grand prize.

Jackie dropped from 249 to 243 pounds, losing six pounds and posting a 2.41% weight-loss percentage. Blake fell from 196 to 195 pounds, shedding only one pound and posting a 0.51% weight-loss percentage.


Later in the episode, Damien Woody, a 36-year-old ESPN analyst and two-time Super Bowl champion from Mendham, NJ, automatically got eliminated from the Blue Team led by newbie trainer Jessie Pavelka after he fell below the red line at the weigh-in by posting the lowest weight-loss percentage on his team. Damien now joins Jackie at Comeback Canyon and will train with Bob.

During last night's The Biggest Loser broadcast, host Alison Sweeney explained the week's football challenge. Each team played with an NFL legend. The Red Team got Michael Irvin, the White Team played with Donald Driver, and the Blue Team got to meet Willie McGinest.

For the challenge, the pro football players were required to launch footballs to their team's trainer and one contestant. The trainer and contestant had to catch the balls while tied together. Then, the pair must run a ball down the football field and throw it to another contestant waiting in the endzone. If a ball was dropped at any time, the ball would be considered dead and out of play -- forcing the pair to go back and retrieve another ball.

The first team to get 10 footballs in its endzone, grab a giant sports drink, run it down the field, and then drench the coach would win the challenge. The Red Team ended up winning the challenge, and as a reward, each of the members received a video chat with loved ones from home.

However, Red Team member Rob Guiry, a 26-year-old head rugby coach at Western New England University and former rugby player from Springfield, MA, decided to give up his video to Lori Harrigan-Mack, a 44-year-old director of hotel security and former three-time Olympic gold medal-winning softball player from Las Vegas, NV, who was desperately missing her family.


During the subsequent workouts, the NFL players co-coached each team's trainer.

Once the weigh-in commenced, Alison explained there would be a red line, which means the person to post the lowest percentage of weight-loss on the losing team would automatically be ousted.

The White Team led by newbie trainer Jennifer Widerstrom first stepped on the scale.

Rondalee Beardslee, a 28-year-old nursing student and former high school basketball, football and softball player from New Lothrop, MI, learned she had dropped from 231 to 224 pounds, losing seven pounds.

John "JJ" O'Malley, a 22-year-old bouncer and former Arizona State University football player from Scottsdale, AZ, dropped from 321 to 317 pounds, losing four pounds.


Toma Dobrosavljevic, a 33-year-old senior project manager and former high school soccer, football, volleyball and baseball player from Addison, IL, lost eight pounds after falling from 263 to 255 pounds.

Howard "Woody" Carter, a 46-year-old car salesman and former Arena League football player from Las Vegas, NV, dropped from 335 to 332 pounds, losing three pounds.

Sonya Jones, a 39-year-old PE teacher/coach and former All American softball player from Springfield, IL, shed nine pounds. She fell from 215 to 206 pounds.

The White Team lost a total of 31 pounds and posted a combined 2.27% weight-loss percentage.

The Blue Team weighed-in next.


Lori fell from 255 to 249 pounds, losing six pounds. Damien dropped from 317 to 314 pounds, shedding three pounds. The two contestants' combined weight-loss was nine pounds with a 1.57% weight-loss percentage.

It then became time for the Red Team trained by Dolvett Quince to weigh-in.

Scott Mitchell, a 46-year-old bill collector and 12-year NFL veteran quarterback from Mapleton, UT, lost six pounds after falling from 283 to 277 pounds.

Jordan Alicandro, a 32-year-old regional sales manager and former high school baseball standout from Surrey, BC, Canada, dropped from 253 to 248 pounds, shedding five pounds.

Rob lost a whopping 13 pounds. He fell from 387 to 374 pounds.


The Red Team lost a total of 24 pounds and posted a 2.60% weight-loss percentage.

As a result, the Blue Team lost the weigh-in with only two members remaining. Damien fell below the red line with his 0.95% weight-loss percentage compared to Lori's 2.35% percentage of weight-loss.

The Biggest Loser's episode concluded with an update on Blake's weight-loss progress. She began the competition at 251 pounds and dropped to 161 pounds, losing 90 pounds total. Blake realized she needed to make a complete lifestyle change rather than just attempt different diets.






About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski