Here's something from our local newspaper .
Heavy decision tonight
Raleigh pair's in it, win or lose
NBC set up the current season's incarnation of "The Biggest Loser" as a weight-loss throwdown between families and couples.
But even the producers must be cackling with glee knowing that tonight's live finale will open with a winner-stay, loser-go-home vote between Raleigh's wife-and-husband team of Heba Salama and Ed Brantley for the show's last finalist spot.
"I'm really anxious, excited and relieved," Brantley said. "It's been a lot of work and a lot of time dedicated to this. It really paid off. It's strange for it all to come to an end. It certainly was gratifying, no matter the outcome."
The winner takes home $250,000. But even if Brantley, 31, is voted off tonight, he could still win $100,000 if America votes him the fan favorite.
The couple ended up in the bottom two last week, leaving their fate to the show's viewers, when Brantley gained 2 pounds and Salama lost 7 but lost a lower percentage of weight than the other two finalists.
Brantley ratcheted up the tension near the end of the episode when he asked viewers to send him, not his wife, home.
"I'm nervous, a little bit," Salama, 30, said. "I really hope, you know, America's vote is in our favor. I feel like it's a really positive thing that a husband was willing to do that."
When last week's show was taped, Salama had lost 84 pounds and Brantley, 83.
Brantley was originally eliminated after the fourth episode for not losing any weight that week. He earned his way back in the eighth episode.
He said he never thought twice about asking to be eliminated. Being a finalist wasn't his dream; it was his wife's, he explained.
"It was her idea; she motivated me to do the show," Brantley said, adding, "That's how I wanted to do it. I read somewhere that someone was asking why would I work so hard to make it all that way and not stay. The fact is I needed to be there for Heba. She needed me. I wanted to be there. It was a unique opportunity to help her. She's worked so hard."
Trainer Bob Harper accused Brantley of gaining and throwing last week's weigh-in to save Salama. Brantley shrugged it off.
Viewers weren't told Brantley had suffered a ruptured hernia a day before the weigh-in and was in the hospital getting IV fluids. Two days after the weigh-in, he had surgery to repair the rupture.
Salama and Brantley say they returned home in late August with "a new lease on life."
Food had always been a focus of their daily lives with Brantley, a chef, running the business GourmEd's Catering. They now have a different relationship with food, thanks to the show.
"Seeing how different life can be was key for us," Salama said. "When you have so much weight to lose, it's hard to get started."
The couple had joined the show to get healthy and to get in shape to start their own family.
"I had watched the show so being on was a dream for me," said Salama, a sales rep for a pharmaceutical company. "Especially when I found out I was the biggest woman in the house, I wanted to prove to women that it can be done and I was there to do it.
"Now we know, god-willing, we'll have children and I won't be an at-risk pregnancy."
The couple said North Carolinians supported them the whole way.
"We have really enjoyed this and everybody we've met out and about at the gym or grocery store is so very supportive," Brantley said. "It's really inspired us to keep pushing."
She didn't know how much $$$, but still
And her Vicki say "I worked really hard this week, I deserve this"
Oh and I wonder if Alison had her baby yet? Guess not she is due Jan 20th.
