Ralphie May might have lost the original edition of NBC's Last Comic Standing reality series, but he made up for it during his second reality TV experience, captaining his "Three Fat Bastards and One Black Beyotch" team to victory during the finale of VH1's Celebrity Fit Club weight loss competition that aired Sunday evening.
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May's team, comprised of Kim Coles, Joe Gannascoli, Wendy Kaufmann (aka "The Snapple Lady") and himself, lost a combined 126 pounds in ninety days, defeating the "Eastsiders" team of Daniel Baldwin, Judge Mablean Ephriam, Mia Tyler, and Biz Markie during Celebrity Fit Club's final weigh-in. While they lost the team weigh-in, not everyone on the "Eastsiders" went home a loser. Despite his team's loss, rapper Biz Markie also left the competition a winner, being crowned its "Star Performer" for losing 40 pounds, the competition's largest individual weight loss.
Of course being a show about celebrities, unlike its The Biggest Loser inspiration, the drama of Celebrity Fit Club's was not limited to the action on the scales. "Eastsiders" captain Daniel Baldwin was a "no show" for the taping of the final show, upsetting his fellow competitors who had grown tired of his erratic behavior over the previous three weeks. After multiple unreturned telephone calls, the producers finally received an explanation for his absence only a week before the finale aired, when Baldwin confessed to what Dr. David Katz had suspected earlier -- that Baldwin was addicted to drugs.
Baldwin said he missed the final taping because he had passed out and did not wake until the next day. According to Baldwin, his back troubles had resulted in an addiction to painkillers, which in turn led to the abuse of other narcotics. Baldwin apologized to everyone associated with the show and he explained that he was currently 67 days sober and living at a treatment facility called The Oasis.
Despite Baldwin's absence from the final weigh-in, he did appear at the prior day's makeover session in which the competitors enjoyed salon treatments and new wardrobe updates courtesy of Star Magazine. Kim Coles was also pleasantly surprised to receive a blind date with trainer Harvey Walden IV, and one can only speculate on whether he plans to keep his promise that there was another date in their future. The competitors were also given the chance to see the fat they had lost, and (in a scene familiar to viewers of NBC's The Biggest Loser) were put through a special relay race in which they temporarily wore their old weight.
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In the end, the Celebrity Fit Club's competitors left with smiles on their faces and promises to keep going with their healthy changes. After all, as host Ant reminded them for the final time, "The scales don’t lie."