Elimination Houdini: Difference between revisions

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** 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 (TV)|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.)

* Elimination Houdinis are present in a lot of seasons of [[Survivor (TV series)|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.<ref>Course it's hard to tell whether or not these are just butthurt Parvati fans who are angered that ''she'' didn't win.</ref>)

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** Season nine's Joshua McKinley (for the '70s challenge as well as {{spoiler|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 (TV)|~~Top Chef]]'', only one truly stands out as an Elimination Houdini: Lisa Fernandes from ''[[~~Top Chef (TV)|~~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."

* 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.

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** 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 (TV)|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.

* Some contestants from ''[[The Apprentice (TV series)|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 ~~(TV)~~|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).

* Virginia from season 2 of ''[[Hell's Kitchen|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.

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**** 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 Doctor, Not A Placeholder|"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.

*** 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 Doctor, Not a Placeholder|"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?

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**** Or because conservatives thought [[Serious Business|all the screaming and raging over a stupid reality show]] was [[Pass the Popcorn|hilarious]].

** 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 (Animation)|~~Total Drama Island]]'' fits the trope. He rarely did anything productive, just grossed out everyone else. Despite all this, he made it {{spoiler|all the way to the final two... and ''won''}}!

* 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 {{spoiler|all the way to the final two... and ''won''}}!

** Unless of course, you {{spoiler|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.

*** Courtney also managed to do this in Season 2, albeit to a more [[Jerk Sue]] example by winning challenges thanks to [[New Powers As the Plot Demands]].

*** Courtney also managed to do this in Season 2, albeit to a more [[Jerk Sue]] example by winning challenges thanks to [[New Powers as the Plot Demands]].

** Duncan, however, may be a more disgusting example. While he played well on ''Island'', in ''Action'' he was saved in one instance by [[The Brainless Beauty|Lindsay]] being [[Too Dumb to Live]] and another by Harold revealing Owen as the mole. In ''World Tour'', however, [[It Gets Worse]]: {{spoiler|while Chris bent the rules specifically to allow Duncan in the game and to eliminate [[Ensemble Darkhorse|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.}}

** [[Manipulative Bastard|Alejandro]] also escapes elimination due to {{spoiler|Sierra blowing up Chris's plane.}}

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*** 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 (TV)|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.

* This phenomenon has produced not one, but two winners of the civilian seasons of ''[[The Mole (TV series)|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.

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** 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]]).

* ''[[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 [[Large Ham|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.

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* 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 [[Suicide By Cop|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)

** 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 [[Suicide by Cop|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'', [[Butt Monkey|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)

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* 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 [[The Scrappy|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).

* [[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 [[Sy Fy]]'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), {{spoiler|he made it to week 7, getting eliminated in a double elimination}}.