Elimination Houdini

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
"It looks like we've entered the middle phase of a typical reality TV contest. The weakest contestants left early, so instead of eliminating the person who did worst that week, they are going to get rid of the one who hasn't created any drama. Looks like Alex and Cameron will make it to the final episode."
—Billie Green, Boycott the Caf reviews The Glee Project [1]

On competition-based Reality TV, especially Talent Shows, one needs to exhibit the talent or skill necessary to win in order to justify their continuing existence on the show. Some contestants just don't have that, and most are quickly jettisoned.

However, sometimes a weak contestant will cheat elimination week after week, horrible performance after horrible performance. This is an Elimination Houdini.

Personality can sometimes play a role, but it doesn't matter whether the contestant is a nice person or a Jerkass. There is one and only one trait required to be a Elimination Houdini: an utter lack of the talent necessary to win the show, especially in comparison to the other contestants, including those already eliminated.

It's not enough for a contestant to be deemed incompetent by a mere sizable portion of viewers, though. There needs to be an overwhelming consensus that the Elimination Houdini just doesn't belong on the show anymore. What's more, this sentiment should also be shared by the other contestants (for shows with Confession Cams) or the judges (where the home audience votes and the judges have little to no influence anymore).

And yet, somehow, they survive for weeks and weeks. In shows where the evictions are decided by judges, there may be Executive Meddling afoot, keeping a contestant on as a human Conflict Ball to drive up ratings. One the other hand, in shows with public votes, people will often vote to keep on a contestant who's So Bad They're Good at the expense of technically superior opponents. Either way, it's enough to get some loyal viewers to not watch again... at least for a week or two. It's not uncommon for these people to develop a hatedom that takes on a life all its own.

There is also another form of Elimination Houdini, commonly seen in shows like Survivor in which the contestants vote people out and not the audience. They may be the second person or another target for elimination, but somehow manage to avoid it, and they can do it in several ways. Either they get lucky and someone makes a bone-headed move that gets them on the chopping block instead, they instead gun for a different threat, a Non Gameplay Elimination spares them a round, or the Elimination Houdini manages to talk their way out of elimination and avoids death. If the players are moderately Genre Savvy, a bad player may become a Houdini through stronger players actively protecting them - why knock them out now when they could be easy competition in the finals? Often this happens when Tall Poppy Syndrome kicks up.

It is actually fully possible for the Elimination Houdini to win. In shows about alliances, they may be somewhat of a "Deadly Floater" who floats along then slips through the cracks in alliances, or plays enough of a social game their Entitled Bastard opponent(s) get a good "Not you!" in the final round. Or, in a talent-based show, they have a fanbase who votes for them because they want to see them continue. Maybe they're So Bad It's Good.

The inverse is a Shocking Elimination, in which a favored contestant is cut earlier than expected, many times in the place of the Elimination Houdini.

Examples of Elimination Houdini include:


  • Every season of American Idol has had at least one Elimination Houdini, usually endorsed by VoteForTheWorst.com:
    • Season 1 had Nikki Mckibbin
    • Season 2 had Carmen Rasmusen and Josh Gracin (mostly because for the one time he escaped the bottom two while Ruben Studdard didn't)
      • Gracin has had quite a bit of success in country music, despite Simon pretty much saying that he wouldn't amount to anything.
    • Season 3 had John Stevens and Jasmine Trias.
      • As well as runner-up Diana DeGarmo, who by the end of the show was good enough to deserve the runner-up spot but probably never should've survived long enough to get there.
    • Season 4 had Scott Savol
    • Season 5 had Kellie Pickler (who, ironically, has had a lot of success in country music)
      • ...and some say the eventual winner, Taylor Hicks, was one of these as well.
    • Season 6 had Sanjaya Malakar, who almost became the Trope Namer
      • Haley Scarnato survived multiple rounds seemingly on the strength of Fan Service.
    • Season 7 had Jason Castro and Kristy Lee Cook.
      • Amanda Overmyer was one for even making it to top 12 in the first place.
      • Arguably, David Archuleta, the runner-up for that season, is one.
    • Season 8 has Nick/Norman and Tatiana going into the final 36
      • Though Tatiana was inexplicably brought back as a Wild Card choice to compete for one of the final spots, fortunately neither she nor Nick/Norman made it into the top 13.
      • Yet another candidate is Lil Rounds, who somehow held on despite several weeks of horrible performances, which had her in the bottom three each week.
    • And anyone with a Hatedom, so says the Hatedom. Adam Lambert got this a lot.
    • Season 9 has Tim Urban, Haeley Vaughn, Paige Miles, Todrick Hall and Katie Stevens. Coincidentally, Urban came in 7th place, which was where Sanjaya also finished.
    • Season 10's Stefano Langone.
      • Jacob Lusk.
        • Haley Reinhart, at least until about the Top 7. Things changed, and she would eventually become The Woobie. The reversal was so dramatic (pretty much unprecedented in "Idol" history) that her third-place finish was considered a Shocking Elimination in some quarters.
    • Season 11 had DeAndre Brackensick and Heejun Han, both VoteForTheWorst-endorsed.
      • This season had Elise Testone and Hollie Cavanagh. While both are definitely not bad singers, both had landed in the bottom numerous times despite drawing praise from judge and mentor alike. The first time, Elise was the girl with the lowest votes and had to be saved by the judges. She landed in the bottom five more times. Hollie suffered a severe case of Badass Decay making her land in the bottom 5 times in six weeks. Elise met her end on her 6th time (a week after both her and Hollie were spared over fan favorite Colton Dixon) in 6th place, while Hollie survived once again. The following week, Hollie was spared yet again, this time over another favorite Skyler Laine. Hollie made it to the final four, where she met her end, making 4th place overall.
      • There's also Philip Phillips, who manage to be safe from elimination and making it to the finale despite the judges and mentor consistently giving him mediocre feedback. He is also VoteForTheWorst-endorsed.
  • A good example for So You Think You Can Dance is Season 4's Comfort Fedoke. She had to dance for her life a lot. She was even eliminated once, only to be brought back due to Jessica's injury. She survived another week over early favorite Kherington before getting eliminated for good.
    • Another great example is Lauren Gottleib. She was a competent dancer but underperformeded a lot. She developed a Hatedom after claiming she uses the stage name "Misha Chan" because it sounded Asian(the first name). She was saved by the judges TWICE even after they acknowledged she was underperforming.
      • An unfortunate side effect of this was that everytime she wasn't eliminated it created a Shocking Elimination for: Anya Garnis, Jaimie Goodwin, and Sara VonGillern.
    • The same can be said about Lauren's partner, Neil Haskell. He also developed a Hatedom but at least he didn't say anything silly. And the guys who were eliminated when he wasn't sent home weren't considered shocking eliminations.
    • Season Three was full of these. Cedric Gardner was one of the most highly regarded soloist at the time, but was wrong for the show because he couldn't do choreography. He was saved twice by the judges.
      • In fact he he barely got on the show to begin with because some of the judges were trying to do their jobs but got overruled.
  • Sometimes, the Elimination Houdini will actually win. Case in point: Dat Phan, the first winner of Last Comic Standing.
    • Dat Phan actually did quite well with audiences, though the rest of the contestants were the ones who felt he didn't belong on the show.
    • And if you ask the other comedians from the most recent season, Iliza Schlesinger also counts.
    • Leon Jackson, winner of X-Factor 2007.
    • Might have happened with John Sergeant in Strictly Come Dancing thanks to the fans, but he withdrew.
  • Elimination Houdinis are present in a lot of seasons of Survivor, sometimes winning and sometimes making it to the final four or beyond - Danni Boatright survived and won in Guatemala soley because she won important immunities and Stephanie was repeatedly making stupid moves in voting out members of her own alliance when Danni was right there. Courtney and Denise did next to nothing in China yet made it to the final four with no votes cast against them. (Courtney actually finished in second because Amanda goofed up at the Jury) Susie simply kept her mouth shut for the most part in Gabon and finished in second from people who disliked her less than Bob or Sugar. And let's also not forget Kim from Africa who was slated to be the eliminated in the final four, but won and forced Ethan and Lex to turn on Tom. Then in the final three, won immunity again and finished in second. (It's likely she knew she couldn't win and simply picked who she believed should win.)
    • Chet Welch from Micronesia, who had a terrible physical and social game, was always the second option for elimination, was disliked by fans and actively wanted to leave the game but didn't get discharged until about the fourth attempt.
      • Because Survivor doesn't really have any Audience Participation beyond a $100,000 bonus prize awarded by Sprint, being disliked by the fans probably doesn't really count. Now if you were strongly disliked by the fans in a version of Survivor where the audience has a say in how the game goes (or who wins), that's a completely different story. (for example, Richard Hatch, the original sole survivor, inventor of many people's strategies they employed in later seasons, was HATED by the fans. Not to mention, Sandra, the only two-time winner, likewise has a Hatedom on several boards who tout the "Parvati should have won!"-mantra.[2])
      • You should also take into consideration that some players like Courtney (both of them), Sandra, Susie, and Fairplay were often constantly gunned for as weak contestants and/or considered for elimination (sometimes because of this), but were often spared because a) they simply played as a vote in the alliance b) They talked their way out of it (Like Fairplay did in the final four of Pearl Islands), c) The other players instead decided to take out a bigger threat and ignore them for the round because they were weak or they needed a throwaway who could easily be beaten.
    • Ladies and gentlemen: I give you Phillip in Redemption Island. Had literally the most votes cast for anyone, whenever the votes weren't cast for Rob, they were often cast for him. People constantly thought he was going to be the first to go out of the Ometepe six, and were surprised to see themselves voted out instead. Natalie was also one too, who was clearly lazy and just sat around 90% of the game. As the stupidest and most obnoxious members of their Cult, they found themselves in the final three handing Rob a million dollars.
    • One World brings us Christina and Tarzan. Both of them were constantly considered for elimination for being seen as weak. Tarzan manages to outlast everyone on his tribe and finishes sixth. Chelsea makes it to the final four - and even pulls a Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass moment when she nearly beats Kim in the final immunity challenge.
      • Troyzan knew that he was going to be gunned for by everyone else so his strategy was to win every single challenge from then on out. He was Genre Savvy enough to know that, but not Genre Savvy enough to know that strategy outright relies on you being able to win every single challenge.
  • Project Runway contestants Wendy Pepper, Santino Rice, Vincent Libretti, Ricky Lizalde and Blayne Walsh have turned out crappy design after crappy design, landing in the bottom three more than any other contestant. And yet, they all stuck around (the first two even made it to the top three, getting to show at Fashion Week).
    • And in season six, we have Logan and Christopher.
    • Season eight has only aired a few episodes, but Casanova seems to be one ALREADY.
    • Season nine's Joshua McKinley (for the '70s challenge as well as knocking Viktor Luna out of second place in the season finale) and Anya Ayoung-Chee (who got to go to the final four despite submitting outfits that she herself admitted were horrible).
    • Project Runway Finland had Antti Asplund, who is, oddly enough, a fairly popular indie designer in Finland. His ability to explain the shit out of his outfits let him slide incredible stuff under the radar, from repetitive designs to designs that had little to nothing to do with the challenge all the way to technical failures... until he decided to dress his model up as a giant violin, which the judges just couldn't forgive.
  • While there were some lesser chefs throughout Top Chef, only one truly stands out as an Elimination Houdini: Lisa Fernandes from Top Chef: Chicago. So much so that when she made the top three, Richard Blais said, in a Confession Cam, "Congratulations, Lisa. You just won third place."
    • Richard certainly had egg on his face after that considering both he and the judges agreed that his performance in the final round earned him a rather distant third place. Howie from the third season also counts, since he lacked even the most basic teamwork skills, couldn't cook anything but pork, was on the bottom 7 times (despite being eliminated just over halfway through the competition), and outlasting superior competitors like Lia, early favorite Tre, and arguably Sara N.
  • Ann from the third cycle of America's Next Top Model remained in the game for a baffling amount of time. She was in the bottom two almost every episode, and even when she wasn't, the judges would complain about her "dead eyes" despite her beauty. Somehow she made it to the final four despite apparently being rubbish.
    • Season 6's Jade was kept on for villain purposes, despite multiple appearances in the bottom two.
      • She was the moment a lot of people realized the show was rigged. Alongside multiple appearances in the bottom two, she also had a raging ego, an awful attitude and was already 26 at the time of taping (ancient for a model), not to mention she didn't just survive past her expiration date, she survived until the final three.
    • Season 7 featured Jaeda, who was told that she sucked pretty much every week but was kept around until the overseas trip because Tyra apparently liked having a plaything.
    • And then there's Ambreal of Season 9 who was actually eliminated, but got a reprieve when her fellow bottom two contestant Ebony quit right on the spot. She spent the next two weeks telling the Confession Cam how she wasn't supposed to be there before she was eliminated for good. That was the season that Saleisha won.
    • The All-Stars season had Angelea, who survived elimination four times. While the first three times she survived was justified and believable, the fourth time she was in the bottom two was against Dominique, someone who was never' been in the bottom two and won best photos twice. Angelea even made it to the final 3 and allegedly won. However, something happened and she got disqualified without explanation, thus the remaining two girls (both the front-runners of the season) fought for the title. It's just sad not to see the real top 4 front runners (Lisa, Allison, Laura and Dominique) to duke it out in the final 4 (or at least final 3 if they kept Laura).
  • The judges on America's Got Talent have sent a few EH-wannabes to the semifinals over some more deserving talent (e.g. Ronny B and Indiggo over Xclusive and Lil Countrie & Page 1ne in Season 3). Still, thanks to mass exodus eliminations, the audience has mostly avoided giving most of them another chance. David & Dania being the reason for the word "most," as they made it to the final round despite using the exact same routine every time.
    • It may be a general talent show, but god help you if you aren't a singer. A lot of rather mediocre singers go forward, while other types of talent are eliminted after the second round because "That's the same thing we saw last time." The abovementioned David was called back for a third performance because he called the judges on this, saying (paraphrased) "A singer only has to come onstage with a new song to sing. You expect us to change a magic act that took decades to perfect?"
    • On the other hand, one could say that the ultimate Elimination Houdini was Donald Braswell of Season 3. Who, thanks to an injury to a high-risk act that made the top 40, won the right to replace them. And made the top 5. Of course, many would argue he was actually snubbed from the top 40 to begin with.
      • Hello, Season 5 judges! You're reviewing all the acts again and are trying to pick the good from the bad! Fantastic! What's that? Ronith deserves a spot?! OK, maybe he is kinda So Bad It's Good, I guess I can MARY ELLEN?!!?!.
  • Some contestants from The Apprentice have managed to avoid being fired numerous times despite their collective screw-ups. Omarosa is the prime example, though Lenny from season 5 is another good one off the top of my head.
    • The UK incarnation of the show had Michael Sophocles who, despite constantly proving to be totally useless in the tasks, survived until the final regular task due to an admittedly quite convincing win in his first attempt as team leader, and the fact that he actually reminded Sir Alan Sugar of a young version of himself.
    • Celebrity Apprentice can be really bad about this since Trump will often keep a contestant who is a bad manager, screws up all the time and is despised by others on his/her team. The person is simply too big a source of entertainment for the audience to fire yet.
      • Gary Busey was a prime example. He screwed this up, acted like he was a complete loon and yet Trump went out of his way to keep him despite EVERYONE agreeing that Busey should go.
  • The first WWE Diva Search featured Carmella De Cesare, who made it all the way to the final before losing at the very end, thus taking second place overall. She had managed to become so universally hated that it's seriously believed they deliberately fudged the votes and kept her on just so people would keep waiting to see her finally get eliminated (and thus hopefully keep watching.) This is the WWE, after all—totally scripted Face vs. Heel matchups is what they do. Her existence was finally justified when, just before the winner was announced, Trish Stratus took both competitors apart in a Crowning Moment of Awesome.
  • Virginia from season 2 of Hells Kitchen actually made it to the finals. She choked under pressure, was on the chopping block a lot, yet survived by sole virtue of luck (and perhaps Gordon Ramsay's hard-on for her). There was also Bonnie from Season 3 who may have gotten to the finals for the same reason (though she did at least improve dramatically after the teams were merged).
    • Melissa from Season 3 and Jen from Season 4 were somewhat talented, but were also Control Freak egomaniacs who were repeatedly nominated because their terrible attitudes made them impossible to work with; both lasted to the point where Ramsay challenged the teams to come up with their own menus, and both proceeded to fill the menu with their own ideas.
      • Colleen from Season 5, as she has demonstrated frighteningly poor cooking skills for a cooking school instructor (with Gordon so mortified that he actually accused her of robbing her students) and attitude problems. When she finally was eliminated, however, Gordon praised her determination, and she came back at the start of Season 6 to deliver a video greeting and advice to the new cooks.
      • Seth and Lacey from the same season count. Seth was an egomaniac who refused to admit to his mistakes and screwed up really badly on every single service he was in; Lacey had a selfish, crybaby attitude and could hardly cook at all. Either Lacey or the aforementioned Colleen would have been gone by the second episode, but Ji (one of the frontrunners) decided to step out due to an injury. Seth survived two nominations over better chefs (Wil and Charlie) before being eliminated, but Lacey somehow managed to last long enough to get in the final 8 (at which point she was eliminated during a challenge!)
      • Another example of an Elimination Houdini winning is Christina from Season 4, who was nominated a total of five times, including in the penultimate round; compare to runner-up Petrozza, who was only nominated once, and then only because he chose to nominate himself rather than one of his teammates, causing Gordon to praise his selflessness and call him a "true gentleman".
        • Not entirely sure Christina counts. The woman's team that season was incredibly catty, and all but admitted that they were just trying to sneak her elimination through.
      • Fran from the current season (season 7) can certainly be added to this list. Not only has she been put up for elimination every single time her team has lost a service (which, mostly due to her mistakes, has been almost every single time this season, she's been permitted to stay over more capable chefs. Salvatore from the other team also counts, but he's gone now, though he mainly survived because his team beat the other one just about every time.
        • Autumn also from the current season, once seen as a good though bossy chef, has now become the person nominated the most time in the show's history, outlasting favorites like Ed.
        • It did get silly when Autumn was being nominated because she had been nominated a lot. Autumn was a competent chef, just not a likeable one.
      • Sabrina is probably the best example of a Houdini in season 8. She's been a decent chef - she has yet to have anything sent back or get yelled at by Ramsay for subpar food - but her attitude is so toxic that she's been nominated for elimination at just about every single opportunity by the women.
      • Season 9's resident Elimination Houdini appears to be Elise. She's a decent but not stand-out chef, and has made several glaring errors. Where she does stand-out is her absolutely toxic attitude—no one on her team can stand her because of how arrogant and loud she is, she argues with them constantly, made a point of declaring her intent to get her Arch Enemy Carrie thrown out, and always blames others for her mistakes. Furthermore, when the team wins a challenge she makes sure to let them know it was thanks to her—if they lose, she refuses to help them with the prep work or other penalty, invoking "I'm A Chef, Not A Placeholder" to justify why she feels she doesn't have to help. She claimed several times that she will change her attitude, but has yet to actually do it.
      • And now she's in the Season 9 finale, along with the other Houdini of this season: Tommy, who has outlasted many other chefs despite being a total Cloudcuckoolander in the kitchen.
  • Would Marie Osmond have made it as far as she did on Dancing with the Stars if she wasn't so well known?
    • Master P is a better example of an Elimination Houdini than Marie. The studio audience booed him, the judges said he should go; it was only the phone votes that kept him kept him in the competition.
    • Cloris Leachman got endorsed by VoteForTheWorst.com, an Idol-centric Web site that usually disregards DWTS. That's pretty telling.
    • Then there's Michael Irvin, who can't dance, accordingly brought up the rear in the scores most weeks, survived half the show on viewer votes, only being in the bottom two once, finally hit the bottom three and a dance-off where the judges alone decided who stayed and who went-and still survived! Of course, at the time this is being written another dance-off is coming up next week...
    • Bristol Palin from Season 11. Three times she's finished at the bottom of the judges' standings, and is always near the bottom of the overall standings, yet has managed to make it all the way to the finale, even beating Brandy in an elimination to do so, leaving the audience stunned. Bristol ran out of luck in the finale and finished third.
    • Finland's national version of this show had a real case of Houdini in Season 3, where Finnish MP Antti Kaikkonen was nicknamed Kanki-Kaikkonen (a good translation might be "Stiffie-Kaikkonen") early on in the season, never really got past being an extremely stiff and awkward dancer, had a score average of 14.9 (with a high score of 22 in episode six and a low of eight in the first episode), scored lowest six out of eight times... and finished in fourth place.
  • Though it's a scripted show, Owen from Total Drama Island fits the trope. He rarely did anything productive, just grossed out everyone else. Despite all this, he made it all the way to the final two... and won!
    • Unless of course, you saw the alternative ending played in Europe and South America...in which instead of sprinting to the end, he falls on his ass after eating the brownies while Gwen won.
    • And of course, any character that was a human Conflict Ball was guaranteed to last a while. Especially Heather, who was the main antagonist (well, aside from Chris) through most of Season 1. Her getting to the final three was mostly a mix of luck, other people being idiots, and in-universe Executive Meddling that was pretty obvious.
    • Duncan, however, may be a more disgusting example. While he played well on Island, in Action he was saved in one instance by Lindsay being Too Dumb to Live and another by Harold revealing Owen as the mole. In World Tour, however, It Gets Worse: while Chris bent the rules specifically to allow Duncan in the game and to eliminate Noah after his team successfully completed the challenge, he says blatantly in the next episode that he is ignoring the votes to keep Duncan specifically in the game because of all the drama.
    • Alejandro also escapes elimination due to Sierra blowing up Chris's plane.
    • Revenge of the Island brings us eventual winner Cameron, who is Genre Savvy enough to know he'll be targeted for being a weak bubble boy, so instead he plays this. Although Scott also aided him by sabotaging his team.
  • The first season of WWF Tough Enough had Darryl, a big fat guy who went on and on about how he had the best shot at winning the competition and the wrestling contract because Vince Mc Mahon likes big guys and he's miles ahead of all the other contestants and all. He only got on the show at all due to Executive Meddling on the part of MTV, as the trainers/judges, the other contestants, and the audience all found him loathsome. Mind, the trainers did do something about him, as he was the first one cut from the program... but it still took about 4 weeks to get to that point, as the other contestants were quitting like crazy throughout the season.
    • Mind you, watching Al Snow tear him down for an under-his-breath comment, unfavorably comparing his behavior to that of Snow's ten-year-old son, was one of the show's Crowning Moments of Awesome.
    • For the 2011 Revival, it looks like Miss USA Rima Fakih is the show's Elimination Houdini. Week One saw her cheat in taking bumps by sticking padding down her shorts, while Week Two saw her survive despite arriving to training 20 minutes late.
      • Then she got eliminated two weeks later.
      • Executive Meddling kept her around, as her participation in the show was heavily hyped even before the show began. She was only eliminated when they could no longer justify her winning.
  • This phenomenon has produced not one, but two winners of the civilian seasons of The Mole. In season 2, Dorothy was set to be eliminated but another contestant took a bribe that week to leave the game sparing Dorothy, who would go onto win. In Season 5 the eventual winner scored last on the quiz three times, staving off elimination by being slightly faster than his opponents. Despite winning, he was confirmed as the only person in the final four who wasn't sure who the mole was going into the elimination.
  • The Amazing Race, due to the nature of the game, has at least one team a season hang on long past the point where they should have been eliminated by just beating one team at a time.
    • Steve & Dave, the air traffic controllers from Season 4. After an injury in the first leg they refused to run, yet lasted four more legs thanks to a Fast Forward and major blunders by other teams. On their penultimate leg, the show even played the "sad elimination" music for their finish, only to subsequently cut to a forgotten team that had taken a wrong turn and fallen hopelessly behind.
    • Kami & Karli, Season 5, finished either last or second-to-last on 6 of the first 9 legs before finally getting eliminated on leg 10.
    • Meredith & Gretchen, Season 7, who were the first team to succeed using the "Just beat one team" strategy, even though Gretchen got injured and they had their bags taken away on an early leg.
    • Despite winning five legs, BJ & Tyler went through a Houdini stage in the middle of Season 9. Over the course of four legs, they came in last on two different non-elimination legs, and survived a third time when another team got lost looking for the Pit Stop.
    • Eric & Danielle from Season 11, at the moment, are the only Elimination Houdinis to win the race. They are the only team to ever win the race without winning one of the previous legs, and having more bottom 2 finishes than top 2 (in the first 11 legs, they had one top 2 finish). They also had two legs where they finished more than twelve hours behind the lead team, and were only able to catch up to the leaders due to the most blatantly contrived equalizer in race history.
    • Dan & Andrew from Season 13, who only made it to the Final 3 because they were repeatedly saved by non-elimination legs or another team making an even worse blunder than they did. They are probably the Race's worst offenders, and are widely credited as being the worst team to ever make the Final 3. They even lampshaded this and said, "There needs to be a YouTube video on all our mistakes".
    • Mark & Michael, Season 14. They had a knack for getting tragically lost on every single leg, and are the only team to ever get multiple penalties both on the same leg (which they did on two separate legs) and the same task (for sabotaging the other teams, and getting outside help when the clue told them that was not allowed), yet they managed to barely escape elimination on three separate occasions. This includes another team getting U-Turned (Amanda & Kris), a team not having enough time to make up their Speed Bump (Christie & Jodi), and finally, a non-elimination leg.
    • Brian & Ericka, Season 15. Survived twice, despite huge deficits, because another team quit a task. Maria & Tiffany quit a Detour where they were physically unable to do either task, while Big Easy quit a Roadblock where he was unable to unscramble the name "Franz".
    • Brent & Caite, Season 16, they went through dehydration, got lost several times, and constantly bickered, yet made it to the Final 3 over several stronger teams. Cops Louie & Michael could also count, as other than a stretch of three legs without an equalizer, they spent all their time at or near the back of the pack, barely avoiding elimination at least four times.
    • Nick & Vicki, Season 17. They spent most of their time in the back of the pack, and rarely completed non-physical tasks on the first try, yet despite all this, and Nick's constant verbal abuse towards Vicki, they finished 4th due to other teams making mistakes, and twice were saved by non-elimination legs. On the third-to-last leg, Nick even gave up and napped during the Detour; and eventually dragging Vicki into accepting a 6-hour penalty to skip it, only to be saved by a non-elimination leg. Thankfully, it only turned out to delay the inevitable - their late start time on the following leg caused them to miss the flight the other racers took out of Hong Kong, and they never came close to catching up after that.
    • Season 17 also had mistake prone Chad & Stephanie, who at one point were saved despite finishing in last with a 30-minute penalty because another team had a longer penalty.
    • Season 18 had Kent & Vyxsin barely escape elimination several times, including after running one of the worst legs ever. Leg 4 started by driving in the wrong direction for several hours, and catching their mistake so late that they missed the production-arranged flight out of Japan; the usual equalizer that everyone else reached with hours to spare. Then, when they got to the airport, they left one of their passports at a counter, and had to frantically search for it. They continued to panic and melt down throughout the leg, topping it off by leaving their Race pack behind on a gondola, losing their passports for a second time in the same leg. They got saved by the fact that it was a double leg, catching up at the next equalizer. Then, on the next leg, Kent fell off a ladder during a Roadblock, cracking his rib and spraining an ankle, yet the lasted five more legs after that.
    • Marcus & Amani, Season 19, were constantly making mistakes and putting themselves in the back of the pack and being forced to play catchup, surviving mostly due to other teams making even worse mistakes at the last minute. Marcus, despite being a former NFL tight end, got shown up on physical tasks by a 60-year-old man. And in the penultimate leg, despite not discovering the location of the Pit Stop for themselves, their cab driver got it from another team's cab driver, putting them in the Final 3.
    • Bopper and Mark were this, pretty much all out of just plain poor luck. Both of them were good at physical challenges, but they constantly kept having accidents such as themselves getting sick, lost, or in one of the worst cases, heat stroke from trying to do a challenge in India that required coordination, something neither of them were good at and one thing the other couldn't do because of an injury in the previous leg.
  • Jolette from La Academia, the Mexican version of American Idol. Despite her angry stage antics, she somehow managed to become The Woobie to the audience, and next thing you know, she manages to keep going on and on for one month and a half, only leaving the show after getting the boot from the producers. The fact that losers in La Academia are picked by audience vote, and a fan theory that Jolette's family was using mass dialers to skew the results, really didn't helped to keep her entertainment industry cred.
  • Lacey from Rock of Love Girls: Charm School pretty much made it clear from the first episode that she had no intention of changing her ways. Nearly all of her confessionals feature her talking about her latest brain dead scheme to screw over the other contestants or how happy she was because someone she hated went home. She even went so far as to antagonize a drunk Heather into throwing a plate at her, a sober Dallas into throwing a whole apple at her head, and having Brandi C. yell at and spit on Destiney's face. Brandi C. sincerely apologized to Destiney for it, but she was still expelled even though the judges knew and complained about Lacey being a shit-stirrer. Obviously, Lacey falls under the "Kept on for the Ratings" category. Unfortunately, she's not even an interesting villain...
    • Ashley seems to be on the fast track to this on this season of Charm School. On the bottom for 5/8 eliminations, she not only called fellow contestant Bubbles "retarded" TWICE, but she also has shown very little progress compared to those that are eliminated. The only progress she has shown was owning up to her absolute awfulness, but then again, had none of the other girls owned up to their bad behavior...would they even been on the show in the first place? She made it to the final 3, but only because of Rikki's policy of keeping girls who "needed Charm School more" over girls who made actual progress.
  • While we're talking about girls from Rock of Love, does anyone remember Megan and Brandi C.'s stints on the first season of I Love Money? Brandi C. barely made it onto a team at all, was up for elimination 4 damn times, and the only reason she was eliminated was because she quit. Megan was in a similar scenario, except she made it so close to the end because of being the smartest contestant. She made her way to the end with her looks, and also only got eliminated because she quit. She was probably gone next anyway, but who knows.
  • By retrospect, Hottie from Flavor of Love was this, given that it was obvious that she was only on the show for fame and fortune. Even Flav himself admitted that keeping her as long as he did over someone else was stupid.
  • Kalle from the Finnish Idols 2008 season. He got to the top four mostly on heavy metal fans voting for him, despite having almost zero stage charisma and being almost tone deaf. The judges complained about Kalle's performances increasingly every week untill he was eliminated.
  • Nikki Ziering from Hulk Hogan's Celebrity Championship Wrestling. Despite her lack of talent/motivation and utter stupidity (when asked by Eric Bischoff if she'd taken away any experience from the show partway through, her answer was 'I got nothing'), she stayed on for at least half the season. Possibly because she wore nothing but a tight t-shirt and underwear when she wrestled. Of course, Dennis Rodman letting her have it for claiming that 'this wasn't what she signed up for' is quite possibly one of the show's few Crowning Moments of Awesome.
  • Nekisa from Shear Genius season 2 was on at least 2 episodes longer than she should have been, being in the bottom for every challenge, including short cuts, for 4 episodes in a row.
  • This runs ridiculously strongly Americas Best Dance Crew. First season it was runner-up Status Quo, and season two's Super Cr3w could easily be argued as this as well, struggling with low votes every week until they actually clinched the competition. Note that the fan favorites are the two third place crews, Kaba Modern and Fanny Pak. Very few fans take the show seriously as a competition anymore and try to just watch it for the sake of entertainment.
    • And in season 5, it was Hype 5-0, Saltare, and Bluprint Cru. Hype 5-0 put up lackluster routines every single week; Saltare was seemingly kept by the judges solely for the novelty (they used jump ropes, a very unique gimmick); Bluprint was given immunity by the judges at one point but even so kept landing in the bottom 2 or 3, where they were always excused by the judges. Note that Bluprint is from Canada, and thus none of their friends or family could vote for them, yet somehow they stayed on the show.
    • In the current Season 8, Iconic Boyz, Instant Noodles and Street Kingdom are being regarded as this by fans. Iconic Boyz are considered good dancers but not up to par with other groups due to their age; Instant Noodles have just not impressed fans with overall lackluster performances; and Street Kingdom are excellent at their style but often can't handle choreography and also ignored their challenge during the Black Eyed Peas week. Nevertheless, they have remained over other crews considered more talented.
  • Who Wants to Be a Superhero? got quite a few of these. How Fat Mama made it as far as she did is still unknown. Hyperstrike in the second season, despite being a less-charismatic version of Feedback from the first season, somehow made the final three (in part because Parthenon blew it on a Secret Test of Character).
    • Hyperstrike/Parthenon is testament to how much character matters in reality TV. Although Parthenon performed well in challenges, he had a bland personality. Hyperstrike was an average player, but he played the superhero role to the hilt and impressed the audience (and Stan Lee) with his acrobatic skills.
  • Speaking of Strictly Come Dancing (see the John Sergeant example above), there have been these most series. In season three it was Fiona Philips, in season four Claire King, and obviously in season six John Sergeant.
    • Also Christopher Parker in series one (whose rubbishness was, arguably, a key factor in making the show such a huge hit) and Julian Clary in series two.
      • Series Two didn't really have any Elimination Houdini's. It's unique amongst all Strictly series in that the worst dancer DID go every week. Julian Clary was only the worst dancer in the semi-final, so although he went further than he should it was only by one round and didn't fight for the trophy
    • Lisa Snowdon in series six might also qualify, having been rescued from the dance-off by the judges three times - including, controversially, over early favourite Austin Healey in the quarter-final - only to be the first one eliminated in the final, despite getting the highest score from the judges. You could also argue that EVERYONE was an Elimination Houdini in the semi-final, because an unforseen turn of events meaning that it was impossible for the public vote to rescue one couple from the dance-off meant that the show's producers decided it wouldn't be fair to eliminate anyone that week.
  • Murder In Small Town X had a particularly egregious one in the form of Kristin. The premise of the show had it that two players would be sent to two separate locations in "The Killer's Game", where one would be "murdered" and the other would receive a clue to the mystery. Kristin, one of the more abrasive players in the game, was sent five times on this 1/2 shot at elimination before finally being "killed off." Perhaps it was merely a lucky streak, but unconfirmed reports from crew members who worked on the show suggest that because Kristin was Ms. Fanservice and the drama-causing I'm Not Here to Make Friends person, they had been ordered to "cook the pot" as it were to make sure she would stay around for a while.
    • Its British counterpart The Murder Game had an even more of Houdini in Andrew who played the "Killers Game" seven times without getting eliminated, until the final episode where Andrew ends up being the only one to correctly name the murderer and ends up winning the game.
  • Chelsea from Sci Fi's WCG Ultimate Gamer, despite being completely out of her element (the sole PC gamer on a show full of console games) and really not that great, made the final 6, over the much stronger (yet more argumentative) Dante and Ciji. She did win a number of the "real life" challenges that figured into half the final score for each episode, however. 6th out of 12 seemed about right.
  • Ron from season 7 of The Biggest Loser was below the yellow line (i.e. one of the two contestants who might be eliminated) on about half of the episodes, yet made it into the final four (losing, eventually, to his son).
    • From Season 9, Sam. While he needed to be there for a while, he eventually reached the point where it was obvious he was able to do it at home. But he wasn't sent home for 3 or 4 weeks. Why? Because his cousin Koli was so dependent on him, the other contestants tended to vote for the other person. The only reason he was finally eliminated (making it to the final 6) is because he got the same number of votes as Michael (who really needed to be there), but lost a lower percentage of weight loss. And how much weight did he lose? To date, he is the only contestant on the show to have reached their weight loss goal before going home. Bob and Jillian even both commented at several points (Jillian at one point shouting this to Koli) that Sam didn't need to be there anymore, as he was in better shape than anyone they'd seen still on campus.
    • Almost every season has one of these, as a "non-threat" who is constantly kept around to give other contestants a better chance of winning. In season 10 it was Elizabeth, who was below the yellow line almost EVERY week, and yet made it to the final four.
    • In Season 12, Bonnie has been on the losing team 4 times in 7 weeks, but has managed to escape elimination despite losing a total of 33 pounds in 7 weeks. Granted, one of those weeks she was immune due to a good week by her and bad weeks from her teammates, but the other three...
    • Season 13 has Conda. She is intensely disliked by the show's fanbase, is inconsistent with her weight loss, and causes a lot of drama in the house, including another girl of cheating when she beat Conda in a competition inside the gym in week 3. She has been on the losing team 6 times in 8 weeks...and has had a grand total of one vote to eliminate her, due to successfully manipulating her teammates into voting off the people she wants off for personal (and usually petty) reasons. She has now become a member of the final three.
  • Natalie from the 11th season of Big Brother US. Despite having proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that she's a backstabbing snake (to the point of abandoning Kevin, her only ally left in the house, to go collect more money when he was trapped by Pandora's Box. She didn't even tell anyone else how to free him! Kevin had to tell her she couldn't keep the money unless she freed him, and even then she was just concerned about the money. She later made up a lame excuse about not wanting anyone else to free him when confronted about it afterward, then choosing to sit out of the most important veto in the season to see her boyfriend when Kevin needed that veto.) and having lied since the beginning (she told them she was 18. She's really 24!), she still had everyone snowed over. She finished in 2nd place, behind Jordan.
    • Natalie was just bad on many levels. The funniest thing about her is that she would constantly brag in the diary room about what a spectacular competitor she was, that her failure to even come close to winning most of the challenges was intentional (it clearly wasn't), and that she would often brag, at the same time, that she was both a master manipulator and the contestant who deserved to win because she had the most "integrity" (again, neither was true). Is it any surprise that most of the jurors (who were seeing her gameplay) were just disgusted at her? (Although Jordan certainly wasn't blameless, for doing almost nothing by herself until the final week, despite knowing to take her instead of Kevin, who would have beaten her by like 5-2.)
      • Surprisingly, Natalie thought she still had allies in the jury house, since several of the jurors had been her allies at one time or another. Once they saw what she really was like, they deserted her quickly.
    • Needless to say, Natalie's Hatedom is completely and utterly justified. She's one of the most hated Big Brother players.
  • Another US Big Brother example would be Season 9's Sharon. Despite never seeming to win any challenge (Sans the one Head of Household she won hands down early in the game), Sharon somehow made it to the final four by doing what 90% of reality contestants can't do...keeping her mouth shut. Despite being on the block five times in a row, Sharon was perhaps in the best spot to win simply because she would sit in her bed and chew on her lip while everyone else was being yelled at by James, watching Chelsia have a meltdown & crush all the Easter Eggs, listening to Joshuah's put downs & Sheila's whining, and accusing Natalie of having a million secret alliances. Her elimination from the game resulted in quite the controversy, since the Guide Dang It answer had cost her the challenge. Had she gotten it right and won Head of Household or veto, Ryan would have said, "Well I got an alliance with Sharon, so I vote to evict YOU!". Sharon even purposely dropped out of an endurance challenge saying she had a bad back, which was, according to her, the biggest lie she made in the game.
    • Other people have actually used this strategy, to appear to be the Elimination Houdini in order to make it to the end. While Monica of Big Brother 2 didn't know it, this was more or less her strategy...of course the game was new so simply staying back and keeping her mouth shut (For the most part) was an effective way to reach the final three. (Had Nicole not won the final head of household, it was likely Will would have taken her to the final two) Dr. Will and Kevin also tried to play this strategy to never win Head of Household and always appear to be floating under the radar. Sadly it only worked with Dr. Will once, and Kevin was recognized as a big threat despite appearing to fall out of several challenges early.
    • Brendon in the 12th season. He was a target since week one. And yet he's made it to 6th place, despite being constantly gunned for and escaping elimination week after week. The houseguests even lampshaded how he made it so long with such a large target on his back.
    • His fiancee Rachel in season 13. She was nominated week 4; Brendon used the Veto on her. She was up week 5; Kalia put up a pawn that ended up going home. She was put up again at the Double Eviction; she got saved on a tiebreaker. She managed to win the season after the most blatantly contrived bailout or biggest luck spree ever in the history of Big Brother.
  • In There Goes The Neighborhood, The Schindlers fit this trope to a T. They were almost always on the block, performed poorly at challenges (Until the last, in which they only won the right to host a neighbourhood barbeque and had more time to campaign to the others) and were only really used by the others to further their own social games.
  • Double act Jedward on the sixth season of The X-Factor UK possessed no talent except the ability to slick their hair up, yet they kept being saved, most controversially by Simon Cowell who refused to eliminate them leading to a tremendous backlash against the show and his favouritism. Ironically enough, when they were finally eliminated, another act, Olly Murs had actually finished bottom of the public vote, but the judges finally came to their senses and sent John & Edward home instead. That said they have had a fair amount of success after the show.
    • The 2010 series gave us Wagner who had even less singing ability, had a tendency to try and ogle or grope the female dancers, and was frequently booed by the audience after each performance. He amassed a shocking amount of support through the competition largely down to a combination of So Bad It's Good, those who enjoyed the sheer entertainment value and people who basic wanted to screw over the judges. Once he got in the bottom two, though, he was gone. We also had Katie Waissel who could sing (at least when nerves didn't get the better of her) but who was unpopular for other reasons and somehow survived a record four eliminations before finally going out just before the semi-finals.
    • The US version gave us Marcus Canty, who managed to survive to the final four over stronger competition, despite being in the bottom two three times in a row. The third time, he benefited from Nicole Scherzinger taking a cue from Paula (who had pulled a similar stunt earlier in the season when it was two of her groups on the chopping block) and voting to keep him because she "didn't want to hurt his feelings". This sent it to deadlock and the public vote, which eliminated Rachel Crow instead. He finished in 4th place overall.
  • Fictional, but because the public voted in Sims Big Brother 5, this still applies. Pamela was repeatedly put on the block and not evicted. Only when the housemates got to vote near the finals was she finally evicted from the house. She was more or less kept around solely because it seemed like anyone who was up against her on the block was evicted.
    • Invoked by Keri and Yvette in Sims Big Brother 6. Neither Keri nor Yvette seemed to be able to win any challenges, nor be part of any major alliance. Their entire plan was to actually lay low out of the drama while the two main alliances duked it out with each other, then, when one of them wins (or their numbers were reduced enough), start trying to win Head of Household challenges. And quite honestly, it worked, as Keri and Yvette managed to make it to the final three and knocked out an entire alliance in one week thanks to a conveniently placed Double Elimination Week. (Neither of them won, however.)
    • A more minor example, in Sims Big Brother 2, Dora came in last on the Solitary-style challenges, therefore being made the "Unlucky Houseguest", and part of the conditions of being the Unlucky Houseguest was that she had to be nominated every week for awhile. Naturally she survived elimination before finally asking to be voted out because it stopped being fun for her. Dora was mostly kept around because she wasn't a threat, being unable to compete for Head of Household competitions. (Which may not be as bad as you think)
  • In Big Brother Sim Edition 2, Pepper. Pepper was almost constantly gunned for merely for being annoying, but she somehow managed to make the final two, mostly because Melissa quit and let her continue in her stead, she lucked out on a Termination Room Twist (Which meant one houseguest had to be eliminated, but they'd win a prize), because she managed to make a deal with Socks, and because Stella disliked Socks more.
  • Minor examples happen in the UK version of Big Brother. The way that series works is that everyone casts two nominations, and the ones with the most nominations are put up on the block, against public voting. Some contestants actually do receive a large number of nominations or are put up on the block (sometimes consecutively) against the public vote, but manage to survive, or never receive enough from fellow houseguests to be nominated. (Rex and Mohamed in 2008 for example received plenty of nominations but never enough at one point)
    • Big Brother 2009. We have Freddie/Halfwit (long story), who received 45 nominations total and was put up for eviction a total of eight times in the season. (Five of those week were consecutive!), but he managed to survive with sometimes way over 60% of the public vote of his favour before his luck ran out and he was evicted on Day 72.
      • Marcus also received 46 nominations, but many of 'em were spread out...however he was put up four times in a row, although two of them were when there were more than ten people on the block. (Oftentimes a case of other housemates breaking the rules and being nominated as punishment)
  • Aria on Season 6 of The Next Food Network Star. Her cooking was pretty consistently mediocre, and her point of view was just boring. Yet she managed to make it to the final 4. Brad is also pretty notable, since even though he could cook, he could not come up with a culinary point of view at all, and only managed to settle on one shortly before he was eliminated.
    • Dzintra was on her way to becoming one in the first few weeks of Season 6. The first episode she didn't even cook because she "got something in her eye" and had to go to the hospital! Then she consistently underperformed and showed she was just plain crazy and still didn't get eliminated until the fourth week. Also, Aarti is a special case because few people thought she should win, but the judges seemed smitten. In any case, it runs into The Runner Up Takes It All territory, as second-place finisher Tom also got a show on the network, one that seems to be getting much more publicity.
  • Katie Doyle from the eighth The Real World/Road Rules Challenge went up for elimination via "The Inferno" more often than any other female competitor, owing to her mediocre performance during challenges and tensions with her teammates. After a few failed attempts to off her, her team even went so far as to throw a mission and give up the cash prize just to force Katie into the Inferno against one of the opposing team's strongest players. The ploy did not work - Katie persevered in each case, ultimately making it to the final round and sending home a couple of her more popular opponents in the process.
    • To be fair this happens a lot in this series of challenges thanks to both twists and other contestants not exactly being the brightest bunch. Back in 'The Gauntlet' Road Rules team member Sarah was placed into eliminations on five separate occasions and beat each one to stick around to the end. You then had Beth who outlived her welcome on Gauntlet 2 but hung around for a long period of time to her team-mates annoyance. Kina, Derrick and Alton were in eliminations multiple times too but were simply there due to a twist. Wes and Casey in 'Fresh Meat' being put into elimination too for five rounds. Theres Svetlana in 'The Duel' who was thrown in multiple times for being out of the main crowd and hung around long enough to win the whole thing. Ev in the island was almost booted on several occasions but was also kept around thanks to twists.
  • Magic: The Gathering.com's Great Designer Search 2 had this in Jonathan Loucks. He was consistently been told that his set mechanics are too complex. In round 3, many of the players following the competition had him pegged to leave... but Jonathan Woodward got the heave-ho instead, because, in Mark Rosewater's words, "the other designers all turned in better submissions", though players at large begged to differ. He would be eliminated the next round, however, after completely jettisoning a few ideas he had that the judges actually liked in favor of an obviously unworkable theme (colorless mana matters).
  • Megan from Syfy's special effects makeup competition Face/Off was an abysmal, egotistical competitor, consistently on the chopping block for her poor performance while showing active hostility toward anyone who badmouthed her, making excuses for her lack of skill, and often deferring to her partner for the bulk of the work on team challenges. Yet somehow, she managed to escape elimination...until the second to last episode, where the judges finally wised up and kicked her out on the spot. Even more shocking, while the judges seemed to accept her excuses up until that point, her last performance in the last challenge so disgusted them, they forewent conferring with the challenge winner first (a formality they usually indulged in, for the rest of the series).
    • Season 2 had Jerry. He wasn't quite as egotistical as some of the people on there, but what he lacked in ego, he made up for in lack of skill, despite his relatively advanced age and work experience. Despite finishing in the bottom 3 all but one week (where, granted, he finished in the top 3), he made it to week 7, getting eliminated in a double elimination.
  • A notable example was in the first season of Sweden's version of Dancing With the Stars. The line up included a comedian who wasn't that good to begin with, and who got sick of the show and wanted to be sent home after a while. The viewers wouldn't have it however, and he stayed on the show, doing increasingly bad performances to the point where he made one sitting down.
  • WWE's fourth season of NXT had Johnny Curtis, who WON as one of these. A combination of immunity won in the right weeks and the most popular rookie Derrick Bateman being eliminated due to injury in the final three, which led to him being a face in the finals against a heel Brodus Clay (meaning he'd automatically take home the fan poll) led to him winning.
    • After winning, Curtis was immediately kicked back to developmental and later deprived of his prize (as his pro, R-Truth, had turned heel), while Clay was immediately rushed to the main roster. Some time later, Curtis would finally be debuted on the main shows... with several weeks of terrible puns. Not very hard to see who WWE wanted to win.
  • Many people feel this way about Alex from The Glee Project, who was in the bottom three more than any other character (four weeks in a row), and complain that his Camp Gay diva personality and vocal range appeal to Ryan the most.
  • In Machinima Top FPS, the contest works similar to survivor, where players are gradually removed. In three of the four eliminations, the ones that complete the task get the boot.
  • Since the entire premise of The Bachelor is watching dating drama unfold, it should come as no surprise that each season has had at least one contestant viewers almost unanimously agreed is a bad egg. Courtney, from the latest season, is an arguable example, since many viewers have come to despise her catty attitude and utter lack of tangible chemistry with Ben.
  • In The Weakest Link, someone who is the weakest link statistically speaking often survives making it to the penultimate or even final round because the voting doesn't always go with the statistics. However, occasionally, the weakest link Statistically Speaking is merely someone who answered all their questions correctly, but were asked less questions than the others.
  1. ↑ Cameron quit the next episode.
  2. ↑ Course it's hard to tell whether or not these are just butthurt Parvati fans who are angered that she didn't win.
Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Elimination_Houdini?oldid=2052185"