Ashley Johnston

Trae Patton

Sherry Johnston

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In a tumultuous night Tuesday on "The Biggest Loser," Knoxville's mother-daughter team of Sherry and Ashley Johnston were split up, as all teams were disbanded. And playing as an individual, mother Sherry Johnston, 51, narrowly escaped elimination.

But ultimately both Johnstons survived another week on the NBC reality show.

The episode began with the announcement that the teams would be dissolved, forcing all contestants to play for themselves, and two players would be eliminated at the show-ending weigh-in rather than the customary one.

After going to the United States Olympic Training Center in Colorado to train with Olympians, the players traveled to Colorado's Garden of the Gods State Park to face a biathlon-inspired immunity challenge in which the players had to walk a circular path and shoot laser guns at the targets of other players. Although the Johnstons have typically fared poorly in past immunity challenges, they made out much better in this one, which was to some extent a popularity contest. Sherry Johnston was the 11th player eliminated of the 15 contestants. Ashley Johnston was 13th out, putting her in third place.

"Third place ain't bad for always being last," a smiling Ashley Johnston, 27, said.

In a battle of dads, O'Neal Hampton of Minneapolis won immunity over Darrell Hough of Ann Arbor, Mich.

At the fateful weigh-in, the player with the lowest percentage of weight loss would automatically be eliminated. In addition, the next two worst finishers would face off against each other and one of them would also be eliminated.

Ashley Johnston lost six pounds to a weight of 311, securing her position in the next round. But her mother, one of the smallest players in the competition, only lost three pounds to a weight of 177. It wasn't until the final player's weigh-in that the contestants discovered Sherry Johnston finished fourth from the bottom - just well enough to secure her safety.

Melissa Morgan, a 39-year-old attorney from Aspermont, Texas, actually gained a pound, the only player to gain weight for the week, and she was instantly eliminated. Meanwhile, the second and third worst finishers - Hough and 50-year-old Cheryl George of Ardmore, Okla. - were forced to face off in a physical challenge in which they had to balance torch stems on their heads. The first to drop their stem would go home.

The show ended as a cliffhanger, with the face-off unresolved.