Ali tells the teams that this is “work week”—they’ll all go home eventually and they won’t have all day to work out. So this week they’ll have “full-time jobs” and the gym will only be open from 6AM to 7:30PM. They’ll be working at a food bank for their “jobs”. The contestants are then immediately taken to a challenge, which has blue and black teams pulling 33000 pound semis. As they pull the trucks, they need to load puzzle pieces onto the truck, and then at the end they have to assemble the puzzle that spells the award: “Groceries for one year”.

Five members will pull the semis and the sixth will pick up puzzle pieces. Black team can’t even get the truck moving at the start; blue is two truck lengths ahead before black starts moving. O’Neal is gathering for blue and lagging behind the truck at the first couple stops, but later he keeps up. Blue begins assembling the puzzle first, and while black starts to catch up blue holds on to win.

At the food bank, some of the contestants are doing desk jobs and making phone calls, others are stocking the trucks, and others are checking inventory. At the food bank, they meet one of the workers who is also overweight, and they hear his story and try to give him some advice/tips on how to change his life. After their day of work, they take the bus home and it’s time for the gym; they only have about 90 minutes before the gym “closes” for the night. As the week goes on, the players appear to get burnt out by the 9-to-5 jobs; they wake up at 5:30AM and don’t get to bed until after 10PM. The schedule continues even into the last chance workout, where they have two hours before the gym closes to cram everything in.

This week, there are no bonuses or penalties to either team, and the only immune person will be the highest weight loss on the losing team. O’Neal starts the weighing for blue with 5 pounds (1.58%); Sunshine is next with 7 (3.02%), Michael loses 9 pounds (2.16%), Koli 10 (3.16%), Daris 9 (3.37%), and last is Lance with 10 pounds (3.33%). Lance is below 300 pounds for the first time in a long time; Daris is the highest percent weight loss for blue team. Blue loses a total of 50 pounds: 2.71%; black team will need 39 pounds to beat them. Black starts with Andrea and 7 pounds (2.80%); Ashley is next with a goal to get under 300 pounds for the first time in 12 years and she loses 8 pounds (2.66%), achieving her goal. Cheryl loses 5 (2.67%), Sherry 5 (2.92%), and Stephanie just 3 (1.41%). That leaves just Sam to pick up the slack and lose 11 pounds for the win; he loses only 4 pounds (1.38%) making him the lowest percentage loss for the team. Black loses this week (32 pounds and 2.27%) and Sherry has immunity.

The black team starts their deliberation with Ashley asking how far each player is from their goal weight, and as the players reveal their goals it turns out Sam is only “50 something” pounds off. Everyone says they want to stay, but it sounds like either Sam or Cheryl is going to get voted off. Sam starts the voting and says he tried to do what would help the team most, voting for Cheryl; Stephanie also votes for Cheryl. Cheryl is next and she votes for Sam Stephanie saying she feels she can do it at home; Sherry says she voted for someone strong that can do it at home and votes for Sam. Ashley echoes what Sam and Stephanie said and votes for Cheryl, sending her home.

At the check up with Cheryl, she reveals she’s at 164 pounds now (27.75%). She went through her clothes when she got home and donated them all to a local church. She’s now leading a workout group and has “found her voice”. She’s planning on running 5k this month and wants to be at 135 pounds by the finale.

The Biggest Loser Season Nine Week 8 Episode originally aired March 9, 2010 on NBC.

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