Knoxville's 'Biggest Loser' team overcomes adversity to advance again

Ashley Johnston

Ashley Johnston

Photo by Trae Patton

Sherry Johnston

Knoxville's mother-daughter team of Sherry and Ashley Johnston, the "pink team" on "The Biggest Loser," had another tearful night on Tuesday night's show. But like all the previous weeks, it ultimately worked out OK and they made it through another round.

The night didn't come without trials for the Johnstons. During an immunity challenge, Sherry Johnston, 51, represented her team and had to push a weight-loaded, rotating apparatus similar to what football players train on. She quickly fell behind all the other teams and ended in last place, incurring a two-pound penalty for the pink team at the show-ending weigh-in - a decided disadvantage for the team that finished next to last in the weigh-in the previous week.

Later, when Ashley Johnston, 27, was on her nemesis the treadmill, show trainer Jillian Michaels - who commented, "there's no fire lit under Ashley" - accosted her for her slow pace and limited incline. Johnston began crying, and Michaels took her outside to talk it out.

Johnston revealed emotional baggage over the death of her father, Ken Johnston. Sobbing, Johnston expressed frustration at all the "verbal crap I got from him about my size." But she also expressed regret for keeping him at arm's length when he was battling cancer.

When Michaels asked what she would say to her father, a crying Johnston replied, "He hurt my feelings all the time ... and I'm sorry that I wasn't there."

At the fateful weigh-in, Ashley Johnston had lost 9 pounds, and her mother had lost 6. Even with the penalty, that was good enough to place the pink team in second place in terms of percentage weight loss.

The show had other moments of drama.

The yellow and blue teams - who had been exiled from the show from the first day, forced to compete against each other to stay in the game - returned. Yellow's father-daughter team, O'Neal and Sunshine Hampton of Minneapolis, won the chance to re-enter the game. They also won immunity.

White team's Michael Ventrella of Chicago also won immunity. And despite having had emergency surgery (and having her body filled with some 8 to 9 extra pounds of fluid as a result), the green team's Miggy Cancel, 48, from New Jersey, lost enough weight to stay in the game.

Brown team's John Crutchfield of Orlando, Fla., didn't lose enough to stay in the competition, and he was eliminated.

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