On last night's episode of The Biggest Loser, the black team put themselves in the finale and eliminated their last competition: Neil.  Neil has been a controversial contestant, to say the least, this season.  He gained 17 pounds intentionally in the middle of the season in order to eliminate Jez, a member of the black team.  When the black team wanted vengeance, they couldn't get it as Neil lost enough weight each week to keep him above the yellow line.  Neil finally fell below the yellow line this week, despite losing 10 pounds.  The black team sent him on his way and prepared for the live finale.  It is the first time in Biggest Loser history that only one team has been represented in a finale.  Today, Neil spoke to BuddyTV about his time on the show and how he doesn't want to remembered as the guy who gained 17 pounds.

Below, you will find the complete transcript and mp3 of the interview\

Hey everyone. This is Gina from BuddyTV, and today I'm talking to Neil from NBC's The Biggest Loser. I have to admit that I was hard on you when you first gained the weight early on in the season. [laughter] Well, you know what? I feel like I misunderstood you in the beginning of the season. I was wondering if, when you watch the episodes back, you felt like they told your story accurately.

You know, it's tough to say because, you know, I'm definitely not the malicious game-playing, manipulative guy that they maybe portrayed on TV. I mean, it comes with the territory—obviously, I'm a realist—mostly due to the fact that I did something stupid that was not quite received very well by a lot of people. I agree with that. You know, the producers of the show deserve the right to portray me the way they want to with things like that. But, for those people who know me or people who are close to me, even contestants or producers included, they know that I'm not a bad guy. Believe me when I tell you.

You know, the 17 pound thing in hindsight was definitely not my proudest moment on The Biggest Loser. I did it, not only for personal gain, but I really did it more so for trying to keep my closest friends around me at all times. For me, it wasn't about winning a game, it wasn't about making money in the long run, it wasn't about that. It was just about keeping those people around me that I think brought out the best. And I did it strategically for the blue team as my closest friends, and it really wasn't for a personal gain thing or anything. I can understand why people would hate me.


Well, your blue team members, in their interviews with BuddyTV, they came forward and said that they all knew what you going to do, but when the episode aired, it sort of looked like you just took the fall for what an entire team had decided to do.

Right. But I don't want to make it sound like I'm trying to let myself off the hook. I mean, at the end of the day, whether other people knew about it or not—and I'm not just saying it was limited to the blue team, by any means—I was saying that regardless of who knew about it and how the strategy of the game-play worked out, ultimately, it was me who was on the scale. I'm the one who gained the weight, and I rightfully should be taking the hit for it.


Well, I was really disappointed on last night's episode, that they didn't show you when you come home and you get to see your friends and your family. So, what was that like when you first got home?

It was really an unbelievable experience. I mean, I've said before that I think I've seen my father cry once in his life when my grandmother passed away, and he was definitely sobbing. They've been so worried about me and my health for the longest time. You know, I'm only 25 years old, and they've known me for over 400 for many years. And there was general concern from doctors and close relatives included that I wasn't going to see past the age of 30.

I think that when I came home for the first time seeing them after this experience, all my friends, all my family, everyone knew that it was going to be okay. It was the first time that I got that look of joy and happiness in their eyes. I hadn't seen that in a long time because every time I saw someone I was supposed to, yes, they were happy to see me but they were always worried about the path I was going down with my health. People were shocked, I can tell you that much. You know, if you can be down 143 pounds in such a short amount of time, to come home and show yourself off to everybody, I think was definitely a pretty unbelievable experience for a lot of people.


Could you have ever imagined that you would have lost as much weight as you did? It's so dramatic when people are on the show, how much weight they drop.

There's no way my mind could even fathom losing as much weight as the people on the show. No way. If you told me when I first started this, when I first started The Biggest Loser, that I would even have lost 50 or 60 pounds, I would have been happy because, you know, that's 50 or 60 pounds in the right direction of where I need to be. But to lose over 100 pounds, lose 140 pounds, it's absolutely incredible. It's life changing.


Well, how are your preparations going for the live finale? And, are you talking to Bob as you prepare for this?

Yeah, so Bob is definitely in contact with me. I talk to him a couple times a week. He's keeping on me to make sure I'm doing everything I need to do. I took a leave of absence from work for a little while to really focus training for the finale. And I think I've taken some time off this year to really focus on my health, and I figured, you know, in a couple more months for the finale, I wanted to do the same thing. I've been training pretty hard for the last week and the last couple months or so, and I'm not sure exactly where I'll end up coming as far as percentages or anything like that, but I know for a fact that I've definitely changed my life for the better, and hopefully, I'll drop a few jaws too when I see everybody when I get there.


I'm sure you will. We can't wait to see you on the live finale. And I just wanted to thank you so much for your time. We're really glad we got to talk to you today.

Oh, thanks a lot, Gina. I really appreciate your call.


- Gina Scarpa, BuddyTV Staff Writer
(Image courtesy of NBC)