History EliminationHoudini / RuPaulsDragRace

* Morphine Love Dion from Season 16. She has had a consistently safe run in the first half of the season before landing in the bottom two in the Snatch Game episode, and has since struggled to keep up with the other queens in the second half, either placing low or in the bottom two. Despite this, she managed to survive off of her strong performance ability, even managing to defeat fellow Elimination Houdini Mhi'ya Iman Le'Paige. It took until the final five where she was finally eliminated by frontrunner Sapphira Cristal.
* Despite being one of the strongest fashion queens among the Season 16 cast and having a solid track record, Q becomes an example of this particularly when it comes to performance-based challenges. While her bottom two placement in the girl group challenge was deserved, her win in the ensuing lip-sync against Amanda Tori Meating wasn't well-received by fans, who felt she was only saved by her prior track record. Fans also accused the non-elimination in the political challenge as an excuse to save her from the bottom despite her weak performance.

** Jujubee on season 2 made it to the final 3 after winning three lipsyncs. And then showed up on the inaugural ''All Stars'' and survived more, reaching the final four. She's never won a challenge in either season. (Averted, finally, as of All Stars 5, where she finally won her first-ever challenge, and was only in the bottom due to the extremely controversial twist in the second half of the season wherein every single queen who wasn't the challenge winner was up for elimination each week - and even then, not a single queen ever chose her lipstick until the final competitive episode.

** Akashia, Milan, Latrice Royale, Alyssa Edwards, Jaidynn Diore Fierce, and Nina Bo'nina Brown all survived two lipsyncs in a row before being eliminated after the third. There's an unspoken "three strikes and you're out" rule Ru has in place, and Kameron Michaels in season 10 surpassed even ''that,'' surviving three times in the bottom and making it all the way to the end before losing the final lip sync for the crown.
** Mhi'ya Iman Le'Paige takes this to a rather ridiculous level. Nearly every single week she either placed low or landed in the bottom two. Yet every week, she managed to survive thanks to her dancing skills. She even managed to defy the "three strikes and you're rule by beating out early frontrunner Plasma. It took until her fourth lip-sync where she was finally eliminated.

* Coco and Alyssa. A more cynical viewer might think Ru has only kept them over other queens who put on an equally-strong lipsync (particularly Jade Jolie and Ivy) because of [[RuleOfDrama the drama they stirred up]]. It's also notable that Coco gets eliminated only one week after Alyssa, which might be taken as the result of her no longer having Alyssa to play off of (though it ''was'' her fourth time in the bottom 2).

* Come Season 6 we have Adore Delano, who in the first challenge was read on having the hands-down worst dress of the group, yet doesn't even get put in the bottom two for an "It Factor" the judges like from her. Happens again in her next challenge, where she avoids the bottom two despite being the team leader and miscasting April and Vivacious in their roles (which landed ''them'' in the bottom instead), as well as having an un-cinched waistline on the runway (again, with April delivering a flawless runway look). A more cynical viewer could argue the point that Ru gave Adore a pass on the first two challenges to make sure she would make it to episode 4's Musical Theater challenge, in order to play up the "Battle of the ''Idols''" between her and Courtney Act.

* Jada Shada Hudson from ''Canada's Drag Race'' season 3. She came in with a lot of hype as a big name from Toronto, but struggled to live up to that hype and found herself in the bottom two twice, most infamously flopping in the design challenge in episode 4 with a nonsensical dress with a chef's hat-looking headpiece. In fact, many fans felt that Jada should have been in the bottom ''more,'' since she sometimes got a bit lost among the other big personalities during the season, and - similar to Kandy Muse - was very hit-or-miss on the runway. Despite these problems, the judges loved Jada, so she survived until the final two and finished as the runner-up (again, just like Kandy). Fan reaction to the finale was mixed as a result, as many were gobsmacked that Jada advanced to the final two over Miss Fiercalicious, who had a better track record and was undeniably the center of the season's narratives.
* As of Episode 6 of All Stars 8, [[spoiler: Kahanna Montrese]] has become one. [[spoiler: Although she won the first challenge, she has been in the bottom ''three times'' now. Twice the majority has voted for her over other queens, and the one time the votes were against her it turned out to be a non-elimination episode due to Heidi N Closet's exit. Funnily enough, if she ends up in the bottom again, she'll match her drag mother Coco's record from season 5.]]
* Morphine Love Dion from Season 16. In the first half of the season she remained safe and then struggled constantly in the second half, placing either low or in the bottom two. Despite this, she managed to survive off of her dancing skills, even managing to defeat fellow Elimination Houdini Mhi'ya Iman Le'Paige. It took until the final five where she was finally eliminated by Sapphira.