Claim to Fame simply topped one other profitable winner.
Gabriel Cannon walked away with $100,000, the title of the second Claim to Fame winner of the sequence, and as a part of the most buzzed-about season but.
The charismatic participant was enjoyable to watch all season and was such a deceptively good participant that considered one of the most satisfying moments of the finale was figuring out that first-boot Carly had to eat her phrases about the man she assumed was “too dumb” to determine something out really outplayed all of them nicely.
Of course, the highway to this level was unpredictable, and the two-hour finale made it unclear who would stroll away with the win.
The finale delivered some twists, turns, and probably damaging flaws in this sport setup that have to be rectified.
Everything about Claim to Fame Season 2 was juicy. And the sequence has managed to have simply as a lot compelling and flat-out diabolic strategic gameplay as the likes of Survivor or Big Brother.
Hell, it could even exceed the latter.
And if there was ever the potential for some crossover motion in some capability, Claim to Fame contestants can be completely hilarious to watch on a actuality competitors like The Challenge, and never simply due to the idea of placing celebrity-adjacent contestants with fan favorites or villains from at instances bodily grueling actuality sequence.
The prime three contestants, Monay, Gabriel, and Chris, spent the whole season making an attempt to gather a sequence of clues and suss out from conversations and hypothesis about the different contestants as to who every individual was associated to. By the finale, all three got here to a drawback in varied methods.
One of the most confounding points of the season was how none of the different contestants had seemingly come shut to guessing who Chris was associated to regardless of sharing Donnie Osmond’s whole face.
And we might chalk it up to most contestants not being in the age vary to immediately guess the 70’s icon and The Masked Singer contestant.
And regardless of the host of clues, a few of which appeared fairly apparent to viewers, like the a number of infants, Gabriel managed to deftly navigate the remainder of the season, leaning into the concept that he was associated to an athlete, not Nick Cannon.
Meanwhile, Monay appeared to elude everybody.
Not solely was she the most strategic and nice at gathering up clues, analyzing them, enjoying a robust social sport, and selecting folks off adeptly, however most of, if not all, the contestants had been completely in the darkish about her connection.
Until the announcement that the earlier contestants can be returning, Gabriel felt he was liable to publicity and that NASCAR racer niece, Karsyn, had found out who he was and he was in hazard of going house.
But Chris was principally nonetheless a puzzle for everybody, as we had been led to consider, and nobody nonetheless had a grasp on Monae’s identification arising with some off-the-wall hypothesis like that she was associated to SNL’s Jay Pharoah or maybe Terry Crews.
There is a few juicy drama in including the kicked-off contestants into the combine at the finish and watching everybody work together, particularly with the preliminary hook of the season being Tom Hank’s niece’s outrageous exit that ought to put her in line to be on a Real Housewives franchise or another outlandish, pulpy, soapy actuality sequence.
But, the closing competitors allowed earlier contestants to function teammates for the final three, and it led to some outright dishonest.
What had been the clear-cut guidelines for what the former contestants might and could not say to the closing three throughout their interactions?
It felt an excessive amount of like the tip of the scale that what might make or break somebody’s capacity to win this sport regardless of all the pieces they did was cliquish habits, petty grudges, and affect by the former contestants.
Initially, we had Eddie Murphy’s daughter, Shayne, enjoying coy and teasing theories about Monay with out outright telling Gabriel who she was.
While debatable, that felt inside purpose of what would have been anticipated with these interactions versus Jade outright telling Chris who Monay was whereas refusing to inform Gabriel who Chris was and main him down the improper path.
Listen, The Resident did an entire tribute episode to Dolly Parton; she’s revered a lot. But with that transfer, Jane has actually solidified herself as a actuality sequence villain, not America’s sweetheart, even when she’s nonetheless revered, rightfully so, for being a grasp participant.
Without Jane telling Chris particularly who Monay was associated to, it is uncertain he’d have even come shut to guessing.
While considered one of the hottest contestants of the season, it grew to become abundantly clear that whereas manipulative and sneaky as a participant, Chris’ weak spot was in his stunning ignorance of most popular culture or celebrities outdoors of no matter bubble he is in.
You can inform that by the enhancing; they tried to clear issues up by having Chris seek the advice of with Karsyn about her theories and, puzzlingly sufficient, Carly. Their frontrunning thought headed into the closing guess-off was that Monay was associated to Terry Crews.
But it did not matter. It was already too apparent that the return of the different houseguests influenced the closing guesses an excessive amount of.
From the viewer’s perspective, heading into the finale, it appeared like Monay had the benefit of lastly figuring out who Chris Osmond was, and Chris, thanks completely to Jane outright telling him about J.B. Smoove, knew who Monay was, and Gabriel was seemingly in the darkish.
Of course, we be taught ultimately that wasn’t the case, however we are able to simply guess that J.R. informed Gabriel who Monay was, and that was the solely method Gabe knew her identification and had a shot at profitable all of it together with his guess.
It would make for a extra attention-grabbing closing spherical if the closing contestants might stand on their season-long work, clues, analytical expertise, and technique to clench the win.
The return of the contestants is just too unpredictable and too influential to issue into the sport for the closing moments.
What good is the return of earlier contestants if a few of them maintain their theories and conclusions shut to the vest and solely present hints, if something, however you have got others outright giving folks solutions?
The mixer occasion with the previous contestants is much too influential on the sport’s end result, giving some closing contestants an unfair benefit over others. It felt badly orchestrated, like one thing from the late nice UnReal sequence.
Ultimately, it does not even come down to their social sport per se. It depends nearly completely on who the earlier contestants need to see win over others, the cliquish habits and segregation that cropped up this season, and vendettas.
And there did not appear to be a clear-cut notion of what some earlier contestants might or could not say, which is why Hugo was decidedly the MVP of the return by casually floating in the pool and minding his enterprise like a king.
But one other concern that comes into query this season is the nature of the clues and the way overt they’re.
The controversy from the finale is that the season that had seemingly set Chris up to be the winner abruptly turned on him when the closing competitors had a clue of a lunchbox of Marie and Donnie Osmond with their faces scratched out.
Let’s be actual; the whole season appeared to set Chris up as the attainable villain and mastermind destined to take all of it house. But that bubble burst by the closing competitors.
As a lot as the Chris followers are calling foul and irate about the nature of that clue being too revealing and screwing his sport, it is not one thing unique to Chris. The whole season has had a difficulty with some contestants having extra overt clues than others.
One of the causes it is so stunning that it took this lengthy for anybody to determine Gabriel was linked to Nick Cannon was that his clues had been fairly evident all season.
The ten infants clue and “Dad” to 11 youngsters would’ve been obvious to anybody with a passing information of popular culture and the present controversy of Nick Cannon’s paternity insanity. And the Mariah Carey point out was as plain as day.
And simply as the lunch field was a lifeless giveaway that confirmed all the different clues had been legitimate, that turban was a clencher, too.
Monay’s clues had been elusive all season; even the closing one would nonetheless have folks in the darkish.
But outdoors of Neil DeGrasse Tyson’s son having his whole face, the house and bowtie clues had been painfully apparent, making it straightforward for him not to stand an opportunity.
Karsyn’s clues with the quantity eight, race vehicles, and even automobile wheels had been additionally on the nostril for the season.
Hugo’s massive “D” for the Democratic Party and the peanuts and Nobel Peace Prize had been additionally extra overt than not in contrast to others.
At the very least, he was clearly linked to a U.S. president.
During the whole season, it was evident that clues had been a bit lopsided throughout the board, with some being extra evident than others, in order that’s one other controversy that the sequence may have to rectify come subsequent season.
After the first season, the sequence has adjusted issues the place the viewers have been in the darkish about the contestants’ identities and enjoying the sport together with everybody else.
If the sequence, in good religion, learns to tweak issues that are not working, maybe placing the clues on a good floor and rectifying the occasion with former contestants blabbing issues might be on the agenda for modifications.
What are your ideas?
Do you suppose they nonetheless want to work out some kinks for this sequence? Were you happy with who gained? Did you make all the proper guesses? Let’s hear it beneath!
You can stream the whole second season of Claim to Fame on Hulu!
Jasmine Blu is a senior workers author for TV Fanatic. She is an insomniac who spends late nights and early mornings binge-watching method too many reveals and binge-drinking method an excessive amount of tea. Her eclectic style makes her an unpredictable viewer with an appreciation for advanced characters, numerous illustration, dynamic duos, compelling tales, and responsible pleasures. You’ll undoubtedly discover her obsessively live-tweeting, waxing poetic, and chatting up fellow Fanatics and readers. Follow her on Twitter.
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