All The Tropes

Non-Gameplay Elimination

In a Reality TV show, or rather, any competition show that involves contestants being Eliminated From the Race or Voted Off the Island, some players may actually be eliminated from the game without being either. Sometimes, factors beyond their control caused them to be eliminated from the game. It's usually counted as being an actual elimination, sometimes taking the place of a scheduled elimination episode or changing it into a double-elimination period.

Non-gameplay eliminations currently come in three types:

  • Evacuation: Commonly seen in shows such as Survivor, in which contestants are put in a physical risk, or have to compete in physical challenges. Some players may actually be injured or develop an ailment in some way that requires the medics to inspect them, and if they're deemed incapable of competing, they are evacuated from the show for medical treatment.
  • Ejection: Breaking the rules should not go unpunished. While some people have succeeded in breaking rules or having rules slanted toward them, others deliberately break rules or attempt to cheat, trying to use loopholes. Contestants may also be removed from a reality TV Game Show because they may pose a danger to the other contestants, such as violent outbursts or threats of physical violence.
  • Quitting: Sometimes, a contestant may be eliminated simply because he quit or dropped out of his own will. They all have their own reasons—maybe they feel they'll be eliminated either way and it wouldn't make a difference, maybe they're having a nervous breakdown, or it may actually be a strategic attempt to throw a wrench into the game's works. Most commonly, contestants will quit a contest show for urgent personal matters, such as a death in the family. This is not the same as simply asking other people to vote you off.

Other types of non-gameplay elimination may be specific to the show, such as the "Mercy Kill" from The Amazing Race, in which a team that falls so far behind the rest that they Can't Catch Up and will be told instead to go directly to the Pit Stop where they'll be eliminated.

Not to be confused with Shocking Elimination, although the reality of some people's elimination can be just as shocking as elimination of the early favourite to win. If the player asks to leave, but is eliminated under normal circumstances anyways, it's Suicide by Cop. (Namely, asking to be nominated&evicted)

Examples of Non-Gameplay Elimination include:
  • The Amazing Race (US)
    • The threat of being "evacuated" has been cited by contestants several times, the first being Steve and Dave in Season 4. Dave wrenched his knee badly while doing a glacier trek on the first episode, and rather than allow the show's medics the chance to declare him unfit to continue, he declined medical attention. It was, it turns out, badly enough damaged that he required surgery to repair it once he got home. Despite that, they made it several more legs before they were eliminated.
    • Jim and Marsha during Season 5 nearly missed the very first flight of the game after Jim tripped on the run from the starting line to their baggage for the first clue and tore his knee open in the fall. The airlines refused to let him board without getting medical attention first, and the time it took to get to the first aid center and back nearly made them too late to board.
    • As for the quitting, there was Marshall and Lance, who simply stopped during a task in Egypt in season 5. In this case, there was also a knee injury involved, but they did quit rather than being removed from the Race for medical reasons.
    • In Season 15, Maria & Tiffany chose to quit when they were unable to complete either Detour choice.
    • Meanwhile, there usually is at least one Mercy Kill per season. Season 2 had three Mercy Kills, including two legs in a row.
    • Mercy Kills were administered in both Season 1 and 4's finales, with Bill & Joe and David & Jeff not even making it to the Final Destination city before the race ended.
    • Similar to the Mercy Kill is the Field Elimination, which happens when a team is unable to complete a task (or unwilling to quit), so Phil goes out to eliminate them on the course. It happened twice on Season 16.
      • One of the most famous was in Season 6, where Lena and Kristy were field eliminated by Phil in the field after spending ten hours unrolling hay bales for a clue. (They weren't eliminated until two hours after the final team checked in.)
    • Season 15's Zev & Justin are the only team to be ejected, when they lost one of their passports, and were therefore unable to continue on the race.
      • Season 13's Toni & Dallas also would have been ejected from the game for losing their passports, that is had they not lost all their money as well. Instead, they were subject to a Field Elimination.
    • In Season 18, Mel & Mike recounted after their final episode they were told by the medical team to end the task they were doing (searching around in mud during the Japanese winter) because they both had hypothermia. The only other team behind them finished the task and made it to the Pit Stop before producers told Mel & Mike to do the same to be eliminated.
  • America's Got Talent
    • Season 3: The Russian Bar Trio had to withdraw due to injury. This injury led to Donald Braswell re-entering the competition and later making it to the final 5.
  • America's Next Top Model
    • In the middle of the second episode of season 3, the girls received an envelope eliminating Magdalena, no explanation given.
    • In season 5, during the makeover, Cassandra was frustrated that her hair was cut very short. Tyra was still not pleased and asked to cut her hair even shorter, to which Cassandra refused - and quit the show.
    • Terra was ejected from the game in episode 3 of season 15 right after The Makeover because she treated her Expository Hairstyle Change as a Traumatic Haircut and the judges (Mr. and Ms. J) found it very unprofessional.
    • Ondrei quits in the early episodes of season 16 because she can't keep her focus in the competition due to her dead brothers..
    • Angelea was disqualified in the finals of the All-Star season for unspecified reasons.
  • American Idol
    • In season 11, Jermaine Jones was disqualified after making it to the top 12, when it was revealed to the producers that he had more than one outstanding arrest warrant under other names.
  • The Apprentice US
    • In season 3, Verna attempted to quit the show halfway through the second task because she was too stressed out, but Donald Trump's adviser Carolyn chased after her and persuaded her to return. Verna stayed on until the end of the task, at which point she quit anyway.
    • In season 6 (the Los Angeles season), Michelle quit during the third Boardroom session. She had grown tired of sleeping in a tent, she was an outcast within her team, and she said she would probably get fired that episode anyway.
    • In Celebrity Apprentice 1, Vincent Pastore quit the show after a massive fall-out with Piers Morgan.
    • Khloe Kardashian got thrown out of Celebrity Apprentice 2 when Trump found out that she had a DUI conviction, and had taken a break from her community service assignments to do the show. Dennis Rodman had also been fired the previous episode for his constant drinking, though that more directly affected his performance in the tasks.
    • The latest civilian season gave us Anand, who- in a relatively rare occurrence for reality TV- was expelled for cheating. During the sixth task, in which he was project manager, he sent out a bunch of text messages to his friends in an attempt to sell chariot rides. Nobody responded, but his team won anyway. Trump eventually found out about it, and it hit the fan at the start of episode 9. When confronted about the texts, Anand actually lied right to Trump's face, saying that he hadn't sent any, only coming clean when Trump read some of them aloud to everyone else. His elimination still technically counts as a firing, but it's safe to say it wouldn't have happened were it not for the texts, so it's going here.
      • Anand was actually the second Non Gameplay casualty from that task. The first came in episode 7, when it turned out that Mahsa had blabbed to the men's team about how much money the women had made, prior to the boardroom for that task. When it was brought up in the boardroom, Mahsa tried to claim that she had only said it in response to opposing team-member Clint telling her what the men had made. This led to Clint and the other guys storming back into the boardroom and calling Mahsa a liar, which was backed up by Mahsa's own team-mates. This finally caused Mahsa to go crazy, drop a Cluster F-Bomb at Trump, and then accuse the other candidates of conspiring against her. Trump said that Mahsa was either a complete idiot or totally disloyal, and sent her packing.
    • Celebrity Apprentice 4 had NeNe Leakes storm off the show for initially unspecified reasons. Trump called her later in the episode, at which point she basically accused him of having a hard-on for fellow contestant Star Jones, and told him to go fuck himself.
  • The Apprentice UK
    • In the first season Adele quit the show, claiming that she couldn't stay due to a family emergency. Sir Alan Sugar allowed her resignation to stand, but didn't really believe the reason she gave, and thought she was just trying to pull the "You can't fire me because I quit!" card before she could get axed due to her horrific track record in the contest.
    • In Season 3, Ifti effectively quit in the second week because he couldn't handle being away from his family.
      • Jadine from the same season was a similar case; she was arguably the frontrunner for much of the season despite her incredibly abrasive attitude, so it came as a shock when she suffered a complete breakdown in the second-last task because she was missing her daughter, at which point she basically gave up. Sugar was initially going to fire Lohit that week, but got rid of Jadine instead once it became clear that she was in no condition to continue.
    • Adam from Season 5 quit prior to the show even starting. He filmed the beginning vignettes and was seen in the group shot of them crossing the bridge, only to drop out less than a day before the start of actual filming.
    • Raleigh from Season 6 quit between the first and second tasks after his brother was severely injured while serving with the British Army.
    • Adam was sent home from the first Junior Apprentice season after he came down with a virus, and was deemed not to be in a fit state to continue.
  • Big Brother (US)
    • Justin Sebik, who was ejected 10 days into the show because he repeatedly threatened houseguests and held a knife to Krista Stegall's throat after a busy night of drinking. Said incident is now called "The Knife Incident".
    • Scott in Season 4 was expelled after repeated rulebreaking and a few outbursts in the house where he made many of the houseguests feel uncomfortable.
    • In Season 11, Chima was expelled about half-way through the game. Since Week 1 she had knowingly broken rules such as refusing to come to the diary room when called, not wearing a microphone, and covering cameras with blankets, but during Week 6 she just broke down. Chima walked out to practice for the upcoming Veto competition and didn't take her microphone with her. Natalie and Kevin then went to get her microphone for her so she wouldn't get penalized, but instead of accepting it she threw it in the hot tub, then refused to pay for it. The following night, she was removed from the house for knowingly breaking rules and refusing to pay for the microphone she destroyed.
      • And this, children, is why her nickname after that was Hirochima—pronounced the same way.
    • The one houseguest who left, Neil, was promptly replaced and his reasons for leaving were not made public, all that is known was that it was an "urgent family matter". Any reasons for him actually leaving are purely speculative.
    • Actually, it appears that another houseguest has departed the Big Brother house. None other than Season 8 winner Evel Dick after returning for Season 13. It's assumed he walked from the game for family reasons. It was kind of weird given that he is Genre Savvy and given that he was the Producers' Pet and Ratings Machine, he'd leave when they could practically fix the game for him!
    • Season 12 had one would-be houseguest, Paola, pull a Melissa McNulty (see Survivor, below) and bail out during the pre-show sequester period.
  • Big Brother (UK)
    • A massive 25 housemates have voluntarily left the house over the 24 series. (A few actually escaping over the roof, and one breaking the fire exit and fighting with security!)
    • 8 have been thrown out, for things ranging from cheating, to alleged threats, to badly-chosen words, to physical assault.
  • Big Brother (Australia)
    • In 2002, Belinda left the series in Week 3 because she was feeling homesick.
    • In the 2008 series, Rima was removed due to breaking her leg on-set during a Friday Night Live challenge after falling awkwardly off a ramp that steadily increased in height.
    • Perhaps the most controversial example was when, in the 2006 series, two housemates were removed from the game for a "Turkey slapping" incident. To save you the trouble of searching for the (NSFW) term, a turkey slap is the act of a male slapping another person's face with his genitalia. Let's leave it at that.
      • Aversion of the One Steve Limit: the two housemates removed were John and Ashley, who went by their middle names because of a third housemate, also named Michael.
  • Big Brother (Israel)
    • In the second series, Maayan Hudeda was kicked out of the house by the producers for being rude, aggressive and violent. Her husband, who was also one of the housemates, chose to leave with her.
  • Big Brother (Arab World)
    • The entire cast was ejected 11 days in... because the show drew so much fire from conservative males, outraged that men and women were living together in one area (despite the fact that the house was primarily segregated by gender and only a few parts of the house allowed the genders to interact), that the show was cancelled. A producer went into the house in person to let everyone know. Needless to say, it didn't go over well.
  • Bigg Boss (Indian Big Brother)
    • In an attempt to atone for the Shilpa Shetty racism controversy, Jade Goody was a houseguest on the second series of this version of the show. She left on day 2 after being diagnosed with cervical cancer, and died 8 months later.
    • In that same series, Rahul quit- just 5 days away from the end!
  • The Biggest Loser
    • In season 11, week 17, one of the favorites to win, Olympic gold medalist Rulon Gardner, dropped out of the competition for "personal reasons", the first Biggest Loser contestant to actually quit, rather than throw the weigh in to get eliminated. However, there are rumors that he was encouraged to drop out, due to supposed rule breaking, though the rumors have not been proven.
    • Season 13 has Joe, who walked off the show the week after his brother was eliminated, simply because he was missing his family too much. Bob did not take it well.
    • Every season has several eliminations that tread the line between this and Heroic Sacrifice, as contestants volunteer to be voted off so people who need it more can stay. This is especially common in seasons where Parent-child teams are common. In fact, in season 11, the parents all made a pact to make sure they were all gone before any of the kids.
  • Boot Camp
    • One episode featured someone was evacuated for having a heart attack. One of the marines actually cried. In the first episode one person quit before anything related to the competition had actually begun—apparently, the yelling just freaked them out that much.
  • Canadas Worst Driver
    • Season 2: Colin Sheppard deliberately performed so poorly in every test that he was expelled from Driver Rehab in the fourth episode. All participants relinquish their car keys upon arrival and are returned when they graduate; Colin's keys were destroyed and his vehicle towed back to his hometown. Host Andrew Younghusband remarked "Let's hope Colin loses his license before his life."
    • Season 4: Donna Hicks was sent home in the fourth episode after exceptionally poor performance coupled with an angina attack. Donna was convinced that she could drive, despite all evidence to the contrary. The province of Ontario reviewed her driver's license after the show; whether or not it was revoked was not stated.
    • Season 5: Crystal Hubley-Fararo left in the fifth episode after learning that her brother-in-law had been killed in a vehicular collision. A video retrospective of the rest of the rehab subjects revealed that they consistently failed to yield, the same behaviour that got Crystal's brother-in-law killed.
    • Season 6: Scott Shurink was expelled in the second episode after revealing on-camera his numerous undocumented vehicular crimes: more than just excessive speeding (which ended his first test in the first episode), he drove while drunk, while suspended, and used his friend's license. Said friend immediately cancelled the vehicle insurance Scott needed to drive, while resident traffic law expert and retired OPP sergeant Cam Wooley contacted the Calgary police with this information. He was arrested for drug charges in December 2010.
  • Canadas Worst Handyman
    • Season 4: Brian Pugh was ejected from the show after an unexplained incident (though believed to have involved violent threats) between him and fellow contestant Brian Macdonald.
  • Coach Trip
    • Alan and Lorenzo from the second series were the first example of this, quitting after Clare and Cat were eliminated in the conventional manner, as they didn't like any of the other couples on the show.
    • Jess and Becky quit later in the second series, after learning that one of Jess's family had been severely injured in the July 7th 2005 terror attack on London.
    • Bruce and John got kicked out of the fourth series after Bruce started a fight on the coach for no readily apparent reason, and then refused to apologize for doing so.
    • In the sixth series, Rara and Jasmin were removed from the show after going on a drunken rampage through the hotel where the group was spending the night.
  • Daisy of Love
    • So many people left the competition that the users of Television Without Pity speculated that many of them were dropping out just to get away from Daisy.
  • Dancing With the Stars (US)
    • Several people have had to drop out due to injury. The most recent was Tom De Lay in Season 9. In a previous season, Misty May-Treanor tore her ACL in rehearsal and had to withdraw from the competition. In season eight, Jewel had to withdraw before the competition began, throwing a monkey wrench into their promotions with her and her husband Ty Murray.
    • In Season 3, Sara Evans withdrew for personal reasons (she had just filed for divorce), so it was decided that no one else would be eliminated that week. Instead, they combined that week's scores with the next week's to determine the next elimination.
  • Ego Trip: The White Rapper
    • Contestants would go through a number of challenges to prove themselves as the best rapper of the bunch, however, many challenges really had nothing to do with their skills as a rapper, but were physical challenges built around humiliating them. The most talented rapper of the first season, Dasit, quit the very first episode (announcing his quitting via rap, actually, and doing so very stylishly) because he knew he was too good for the show. Which is actually true.
  • Hells Kitchen (US)
    • Ji voluntarily left the show after episode 2 of Season 5 due to an injury. She could have stayed, but felt that she would not be able to perform. That episode, she had completed the entire dinner service while injured and without pain medication; host Gordon Ramsey was so impressed by her dedication that he allowed her to leave the show with her "Hell's Kitchen" chef's coat as a trophy and reminder of her successes, the first time he had ever done so.
      • Vanessa from Season 4 burned her hand on hot oil, putting it out of commission for the foreseeable future. She too chose to leave.
    • Robert left the show under a combination of evacuation and voluntarily quitting: he nearly had a heart-attack on the show, and it was recommended that he leave by medical personnel. He had already been considering leaving due to the limitations of his weight; for example, he hadn't been allowed to go on a helicopter trip with his winning team.
      • Larry from Season 2 and Aaron from Season 3 both collapsed on set, and were subsequently deemed unfit to continue on Hell's Kitchen.
      • Likewise, Antonia in Season 8 was removed from the show before even the first dinner service, due to being hospitalized after complaining about a migraine, then collapsing.
    • Lacey was ejected from the show for being so extremely untalented (and of a bad attitude) that Ramsey refused to wait for elimination. She was kicked out before the challenge was even completed. Ditto for J in the previous episode, Josh in Season 3, Louie in Season 6 during the first dinner service, and Nilka from Season 7.
    • Season 6's Joseph, who displayed a horrible attitude (even saying he didn't want the reward for winning a challenge since he came to cook and not to have fun), a hilariously short fuse, and an inability to obey the most basic of instructions, all this culminating in his tearing off his jacket, getting right up to Gordon Ramsay's face, and asking if he wanted to "take this outside". Gordon, never even raising his voice, told Joseph that he had no respect and ordered him out. Despite his protestations about the bright future before him, all Joseph aspired to was a joke both amongst the contestants and the viewers.
      • Jeff from Season 1 was a somewhat confusing case. He stormed out after calling Chef Ramsay an asshole, and at the end of the episode, we were informed that Jeff decided not to return the Hell's Kitchen due to an injury. Not seen on TV was the confrontation after Jeff walked out, in which Jeff shoved Ramsay, and Ramsay shoved him back, knocking him down and twisting his ankle (not that there was any way he would have returned after insulting Ramsay, in any case).
    • Andrew from Season 7 walked out midway through the second service.
  • I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here! (although, to be fair, the possibility of people quitting is inherent in the title)
    • Katie Price.
    • Heidi and Spenser Montag.
    • Freddie Starr was evacuated in the 2011 series after an allergic reaction.
  • Last Comic Standing
    • Gabriel Iglesias was ejected for using his cellphone.
  • Masterchef Australia
    • In Season 1, one of the chefs quit after making the top 50, due to the stress of the competition.
    • In Season 2, Sarah quit after making the top 24, due to feeling that her heart was no longer in the competition.
    • And just to make it a pattern, season 3's Paul withdrew due to "work commitments" having his spot taken in the top 24 by another contestant.
      • After making it to the top 14 in season 3, Adam resigned his position after ending up in a pressure test, saying he felt he lacked the commitment the others in the pressure test felt towards cooking.
      • After making it to the top 9, Mat was eliminated from season 3 after it was revealed he'd been breaking the rules by bringing a smartphone into the Masterchef kitchen.
  • Project Runway
    • In season 3, Keith was ejected for having fashion books- in clear violation of the rules.
    • In season 4 of Project Runway, Jack had to drop out due to illness; the Project Runway solution to a Non Gameplay Elimination tends to be bringing another recently eliminated contestant back mid-challenge and still having elimination that day.
    • In season 7, Maya quit after suddenly deciding she wasn't ready for the big time. Keep in mind, she was only two challenges away from the finals, and hadn't been in the bottom 3 even once!
    • In season 9, Cecilia Motwani quit when she stopped enjoying the competition and felt like this wasn't the place for her. This brought Joshua Christensen back for a little bit.
  • MTV's The Real World
    • Los Angeles: David Edwards is evicted by the other members and Irene Berrera-Kearns leaves to get married.
    • San Francisco: David "Puck" Rainey is evicted by the other members due to his misbehavior.
    • Miami: Melissa Padron moves out after an argument with Sarah Becker.
    • Seattle: Irene McGee leaves the house. She said at the time it was due to Lyme Disease but later claimed to have left because of ethical objections to the show.
    • Hawaii: Justin Deabler left the house due to his frustration with the other housemates and a family emergency at home.
    • San Diego: Frankie Abernathy leaves due to conflict with her housemates and homesickness.
    • Sydney: Shauvon Torres moves out to reconcile with her ex-fiance and Trisha Cummings is sent home for shoving Parissa to the floor.
    • Hollywood: Joey Kovar moves out because he fears relapsing into alcoholism and Greg Halstead left after being fired from the group work assignment.
    • Cancun: Joey Rozmus was evicted after being fired from the group work assignment, but returned later.
  • MTV's Road Rules
    • Season 7: Latin America. Gladys Sanabria attacked Abe Ingersoll and was sent home.
    • Season 12: South Pacific. Abram Boise was forced to leave after physically attacking Donell Langham.
    • Season 13: X-Treme. Ibis Nieves volunteers to go home after she feels like she lost the mission for the team.
    • Season 14: Viewers' Revenge. Abram Boise is sent home (yes, again) for hitting Adam Larson.
  • SAS: Are You Tough Enough?
    • Somewhat Truth in Television as the whole point of the show is that SAS training is supposed to be so tough that most folk can't cope with it, but the second season is worthy of particular note as so many people quit or retired injured that it wasn't until the semi-final that the "normal" elimination procedure had to be brought into play at all. More amusingly, the very first episode of season one had contestants undertake an only moderately difficult walk in the Scottish mountains. Several contestants, including a former fitness champion, simply wandered off and went home.
  • A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila
    • Lala walked out during the second episode of the first season, as she felt that she was being set up and that Tila wasn't really interested in women. This ended up being Hilarious in Hindsight when it turned out that Tila actually wasn't into men, and dumped the season's winner apparently for that reason.
    • Vanessa was ejected later in that season after physically assaulting Brandi. In turn, Brandi walked off the show; she later attempted to return, but the producers forbade her to do so.
    • Serenity and Lily got thrown out of the first episode of the second season after admitting that they were more attracted to each other than they were Tila.
    • Chad was ejected for assaulting Bo in the fifth episode. In an inversion of what happened to Brandi in the previous season though, Bo averted the trope and finished as runner-up.
  • Sims Big Brother& Big Brother Sim Edition:
    • In season 4, Johnny had a family emergency and had to leave; but he did come back and made it to fourth place.
    • In season 6, Gary had a heart attack and had to be evacuated within week two. Keri almost left, but decided not to.
    • In Sim Edition 2, Melissa left and let Pepper continue in her place.
  • Survivor (US; evacuations)
    • It happened in Season 2, The Australian Outback, in which contestant Michael accidentally passed out in the fire from a freak gust of wind and suffered burns to his face and hands.
    • Again in Panama (many seasons and years later), Bruce was eliminated from the game due to illness.
    • Gary "Papa Smurf" Strikesky was evacuated in Fiji because he was having trouble breathing as a result of an allergic reaction to bug bites.
    • Two people were actually removed due to injury in Micronesia (aka Fans vs. Favorites). Jonathan Penner was removed due to a horrible puncture wound on his knee that was actually shown on TV. Shame, since he was playing better that season. In another moment of Squick, James was removed from the game for having a really terrible injury to his finger, but he could at least serve in the Jury. He was seen as reeling in an IV to Tribal Council.
      • And to make matters worse, several other players had some rather bad things happen to them. There was a rumour that Chet Welch may have actually been evacuated due to a piece of coral that was stuck in his foot had he not been voted out when he was. (Meaning they likely voted him out knowing he'd get evacuated—had they picked someone else, they would have lost two.)
    • Joe was removed in Tocantins for a life-threatening infection in his leg. It is likely that this was why the show used a "Final Two, Jury of Seven" endgame as opposed to the "Final Three, Jury of 7-9" that the show has been more fond of using in recent years.
    • Oh my gosh, Samoa. Mike (about 62 years old) had incredibly-low blood pressure and almost passed-out in front of the medics. And this happened in the second episode—the earliest someone has ever been evacuated from the game. Later, Russell S. fell unconscious in a challenge and was found to have blood pressure even lower than Mike's (when he was around 20 years younger). Fans even pointed out signs of Jaundice.
      • Perhaps the Crowning Moment of Heartwarming was when Russell insisted that he get sent back to the game, Jeff was actually pleading him to stop. Jeff is not even that medical-savvy, and he was worried for Russell's life.
      • On top of all that, Ben might've been evacuated if he hadn't been voted out- he admitted in an interview that he tore a ligament in his leg.
    • The first person removed from One World, Courtney, jumped the wrong way during the first Immunity Challenge and landed on one of her hands, breaking her wrist. Notable for a non-gameplay elimination being the first elimination from the game.
      • Happened again just before the merge, when Colton was evacuated due to an onset of appendicitis.
  • Survivor (US; quitting)
    • The most famous was Osten in Pearl Islands. He claimed that his body was shutting down, but nobody believed him and said that it was because he just couldn't take it anymore. (Well, he did barter away all his clothing except for his boxers...) lt was somewhat clear Osten wasn't fitting in on the show—in a past episode, while his fellow tribe members had fun with a nearby pelican, his reaction was to glare at it and sharpen his machete.
    • The next season, All-Stars had two people voluntarily quit the game. Jenna Morasca was actually highly justified, as her mother was undergoing treatment for cancer and she received some "bad vibes". Turned out, her mother died eight days later. Susan Hawk, meanwhile, left after feeling violated following an immunity challenge where a naked Richard Hatch had unintentionally or deliberately rubbed his body up against hers. They've since made peace.
    • Janu Tornell of Palau quit the game, and she actually was the first to attempt it as a gameplay maneuver—everyone else on the Koror tribe was mocking her and constantly belittling her. She obviously wasn't going to be leaving anytime soon, since their main target was Stephenie LaGrossa (the true outsider and the only Ulong member left). So in order to "throw a wrench in their works", she voluntarily quit the game.
      • The fact that she had been sick since early in the game and was practically wasting away also factored in her decision, and it was surprising she hung in there for so long.
    • Kathleen Sleckman of Micronesia also quit the game, but it was a good thing she did...she was having a nervous breakdown.
    • Fiji actually had a contestant who quit before the season even began. Melissa McNulty dropped out the night before filming started because she was having panic attacks, leaving Fiji to start with an odd number of players (the only season, so far, to do so).
    • In Nicaragua, NaOnka and Purple Kelly both quit - the first time that two people quit in a row and on the same episode. Jeff was visibly disgusted by their lack of endurance, and put their torches on display at Tribal Council for the rest of the season. The rules have since changed to prevent players without serious issues from quitting; instead preferring for them to just ask to be voted out if they weren't in any danger of dying.
  • Top Chef
    • In Season 2, Cliff was disqualified (ejected) for, quote the show, "Aggressive Physical Content". He along with multiple contestants had planned to shave the head of Marcel, another contestant. Cliff was assigned to hold him down, which he did dutifully, but the others who planned the whole thing backed out of it. Cliff was then ejected for his conduct, and the others were given a strict warning. Based on the judges' comments, however, Cliff would likely have been eliminated anyway.
    • Also from Season 2, Otto withdrew from the competition because of a mix-up involving unpaid ingredients during an elimination challenge. Howie from Season 3 attempted to withdraw, but the judges said it was not his decision to make, and they eliminated him anyway.
    • Episode 4 of Top Chef: Just Desserts had two non-gameplay eliminations: first Seth was "evacuated" by the producers when (after several weeks of erratic behavior) he had a panic attack and collapsed during the prep for the Quick Fire challenge. Then Malika quit at Judges Table (while the guest judge was trying to tell her how much she enjoyed her dish!), saying that the stress from the competition was ruining her enjoyment of cooking.
  • Top Shot
    • In the first season, Tara left because her father was dying of cancer.
    • In the second season, John had pulled both hamstrings; he left rather than be a millstone to his team.
    • In the third season, Jake was railing against everyone involved since the first time he was sent to an Elimination Challenge. The second time he was sent to it, he stormed out of the game. Mike, who had gotten eliminated just before, took his place in the Elimination Challenge and won his way back into the game.
    • Earlier in season three, Billy Rogers left because his wife was having complications with her pregnancy.
  • Total Drama
    • First Season: The RCMP arrest Izzy (well, try to), and she is ejected. Sort of. She was probably getting voted off anyway, so it's not like it really mattered. However, she returned later along with Eva and was voted off regularly.
    • Second Season:
      • DJ quit the game after his alliance with Chef was eating away at his conscience (although the other team was about to send someone else home).
      • Owen was ejected by Chris (who had brought him back just to sabotage the others) after being discovered by Harold, Beth, and Courtney.
    • Third Season:
      • Ezekiel is thrown out of the plane by Chris, and manages to sneak back into the competition in the same episode only to later get voted off and then denied a chance at re-joining the game during episode 13.
      • Duncan quit the game after refusing to sing. However, he is later brought back unwillingly by Gwen, Courtney, and Chris.
      • Harold quit to maintain his honor after losing the challenge for his team.
      • Izzy was ejected by the U.S. military in order to harness her new-found superintelligence.
      • Sierra was kicked out by Chris after accidentally blowing up the airplane!.
    • Fourth season:
      • Anne Maria quits after finding a diamond made out of cubic zirconium and deciding she didn't need to win the money.


  • True Beauty
    • In Season 2, Regina was eliminated for breaking the show's rules by using a cell phone to contact her friends and risk jeopardizing the show's true intentions of gameplay into being exposed before the season aired. The judges revealed that out of the bottom two for that week (Liz and Taylor) Liz would've been sent home instead if Regina had not violated the rules.
  • WWE's Tough Enough
    • In Season 1, two participants quit simultaneously because they decided that they didn't "want it" as much as necessary. And they weren't the only ones eliminated in this fashion; Season 1 had more quitters and evacuations than actual cuts by the trainers.
    • From season 3, contestant Lisa was removed from the competition after she had a psychotic breakdown and went on a rampage around town. The other contestants were told she decided wrestling wasn't the right career for her.
    • Also in season 3, Jill quit because she couldn't take living with ex-boyfriend Jonah.
    • Michelle Deighton from season 5 left in episode 3 because she couldn't handle being away from her daughter.
Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Non-Gameplay_Elimination?oldid=1927532"