‘The Biggest Loser’: How do you feel about an all-male finale?

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The finale of ‘The Biggest Loser’ and its $250,000 payday is still a week away. But this much is already known: The winner will be a guy.

For the first time ever, the finale of the NBC weight-loss show will not include a woman. Instead, Antone, John and Ramone will duke it out for the title. Ramone, and his million-dollar smile, earned that berth after winning this season’s brutal marathon race through the Southern California desert.

Vinny and Becky failed to lose enough weight to make it into the finale. Becky lost just 10 pounds during her time away from the ranch, a situation she attributed in part to her decision to go back to her teaching job in the final weeks of the competition. Becky said in Wednesday’s media conference call with the eliminated players that she has no regrets. She is, after all, a working mom, and she said she needed to find a way to balance work and health. She said she wanted to get on the scale at the finale next Tuesday and ‘[wants] to be able to say I am a real working mom... Although it was difficult, it was doable.’

Vinny, meanwhile, lost 28 pounds and yet that also wasn’t enough. (Blame Ramone!) Vinny was disappointed, but he’s focused on wedding bells: He got down on one knee and asked his girlfriend to marry him. He said he’s also determined to win the at-home prize and its $100,000 payday.

He says he also has a long to-do list, including coming up with a No. 1 hit song; getting married before friends, relatives, and Biggest Loser ranchmates; and having kids: ‘a boy to teach football to, and a girl to make sure no one will ever harm her.’

His return from the ranch included a difficult conversation with his mother. Vinny says that she married an abusive man and stood by and did nothing while his stepfather brutalized him and his siblings. Vinny says his mother took the confrontation ‘hard’ but said that it has ultimately helped the two of them improve their relationship as it moves forward.

Care to wager on a winner? Will it be Antone? John? Or Ramone? And do you think that John regrets granting last week’s pass to Antone? Because Antone is repaying that favor by putting a bull’s eye on John’s back, predicting a Battle Royale: ‘I’m really sick of John, to be honest with you, and I’m ready to go after John right now...now it’s time to go battle.’

And wait! There’s one more question: What did you make of John having his maid -- I mean his wife -- doing all the cooking, cleaning and laundry while John works out in the gym. Wouldn’t a better course of action be to figure out a way to balance the workload so his maid -- I mean his wife -- could also get a break and put in some gym time and weight-loss of her own? Dolvett called him out on it, and also predicted (like Bob did) that if John keeps focused on winning instead of transforming he is at risk for gaining all the weight back.

What do you think? I find it more than coincidental that two of the trainers have even suggested such a shocking turn of events. Where there’s smoke, there’s fire, no? Do you think we’ll see John, weight regained, on a ‘Where are they now episode?’ Gotta give John this much: He was looking quite slim and trim at the start line of that marathon. Here’s hoping that John finds a way to keep all the weight off -- and starts treating his maid -- I mean his wife -- with some of the same support that she tirelessly gives him.

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-- Rene Lynch
Twitter / renelynch