History Main / EliminationHoudini

** Season 4's Mark Longnecker is among the most notable - despite having never been in the top looks of any challenge, and being in the bottom an unprecedented 7 times, he still managed to skirt his way to the final four. When the eliminated players were asked at the finale who thought they should have outlasted Mark, ''almost the entire cast'' raised their hands.

** Season 5 had the Chameleon, who, despite performing rather lackluster raps each week, still made it to the finals over such talent as Crab ([[spoiler:Music/BobbyBrown]]) and Russian Dolls ([[spoiler:Music/{{Hanson}}]]). Fortunately, he placed third, and was revealed to be [[spoiler:Music/WizKhalifa]].

** Fortunately, the Tiger would run out of luck when he got to the Super 9 round. Up against clearly superior talent, he would be eliminated and unmasked, revealed to be [[spoiler:New England Patriots receiver Rob Gronkowski.]]

* Might have happened with John Sergeant in ''Series/StrictlyComeDancing'' thanks to the fans, but he withdrew.

* ''[[WebOriginal/EscapeTheNight]]'':
** Season One has Matt Haag and Sierra Furtado, they somehow make it to episode 6 without having to go into a single challenge despite Matt having at least one person voting for him in every round and Sierra never contributing to the team. Sierra ends up dying in the challenge and Matt dies in the next episode when EVERYONE votes him into the challenge.
** Season Two features Tyler Oakley, he doesn't contribute as much as the others to the team and spends most of his time being a miserable(but lovable) coward. Even Tyler himself [[LampshadeHanging lampshades this.]] Somehow, Tyler survives the season and only ever gets ONE vote against him.
** Season Three has probably the worst one, Teala Dunn. She's notable for having contributed absolutely nothing to the plot or the group whatsoever and being the first constant ever to have run out of voting cards(only half of the tea was able to vote for Teala, when everyone wanted to vote for her). Hilariously enough, she doesn't get picked for that round, and survives until episode 4, where she finally dies. It's lampshaded by everyone that Teala surviving for this long without doing anything to help has been nothing short of a miracle.

* [=MagicTheGathering=].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).

** ''Series/TopChef: JustDesserts'' had Danielle who was often on the bottom but made it to the final three.

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 Cam}}s) or the judges (where the home audience votes and the judges have little to no influence anymore).

** Tennis Ball and Rocky in season 1 as well. They both survived '''three''' bottom 2's, [[spoiler: the latter even getting the most votes but being chosen to be safe over Golf Ball in the aforementioned mechanic.]]. They also have overall poor performances due to slowness and lacking arms. However, this is a case of KarmaHoudiniWarranty for both, with Tennis Ball getting [[spoiler: 10th via a contestant vote ''and'' a tiebreaker]], and Rocky placing [[spoiler: 6th in the closest vote ever.]]

* Any queen on ''Series/RuPaulsDragRace'' who lipsyncs multiple times and survives:
** Jujubee on season 2 made it to the final 3 after winning three lipsyncs.
** Carmen Carrera never placed higher than safe, survived one lipsync before being eliminated, and then was brought back into the competition to continue competing.
** Akaisha, 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.
** Coco Montrese and Darienne Lake both survived 3 lipsyncs before being eliminated.
** Roxxxy Andrews survived ''5 times'' in the bottom (out of 7 episodes) during All Stars 2 and currently holds the record for most times being saved for elimination.

** GGK vs the Mermaid Sisters: The Sisters were eliminated before they could finish their "song," which was just a series of uncensored expletives. While both acts are fan favorites, the majority of fans preferred the latter for their charismatic stage presence, genuinely impressive acappella performance, and for how [[EarWorm insanely catchy]] their song was. GGK was good, but only moved on because the judges hated the Sisters' song ''that much.''

And yet, somehow, they survive for weeks and weeks. In shows where the evictions are decided by judges, there may be ExecutiveMeddling afoot, keeping a contestant on as a human ConflictBall to drive up ratings. On the other hand, in shows with public votes, people will often vote to keep on a contestant who's [[SoBadItsGood 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 [[{{Hatedom}} a hatedom]] that takes on a life all its own.

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

** The reboot of Australia’s ''Dancing with the Stars'' featured Sir Curtly Ambrose, a mid-50s towering cricket legend in the lineup. Paired up with a dance partner who is two heads shorter than him, Curtly struggled to get a combined score over 15 (disregarding two team dances) – and once scored a total of only 9 in a Jive dance – yet he managed to survive to the final six due to the huge amount of fan votes he has received. It took a dance-off for him to finally be eliminated.

** Back in the first season there was David Otunga. Inexperienced in the ring and not incredibly skilled doing mic work, he managed to last all the way to the final two, though not without help, as once WWE flat-out fabricated an excuse to disqualify a contestant from a challenge to guarantee he won, making all the way to the final two over much more talented and popular wrestlers. The biggest reason seemed to be his connections, as he's married to singer-actress Jennifer Hudson, and WWE is always trying to increase its mainstream exposure.

** The UK version:
*** Double act [[PortmanteauCoupleName Jedward]] on the sixth season 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 SoBadItsGood, 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.[[note]]There's a coincidence. Katie Waissel had once dated Michael Sophocles, an Elimination Houdini on the previous years' series of the Apprentice. Both were eliminated from their respective shows two episodes before the final.[[/note]]
*** The 2012 series gave us Rylan - a performer with no talent making his second out of three appearances on a competitive reality show in as many years. Due to a rabid fanbase and the supposed entertainment value, he made it all the way to the top six. Only after the two favorites to win were in the final two did the judges come to their senses.

* This runs ridiculously strongly in ''Americas Best Dance Crew''. The first season had Fysh 'n Chicks (who finished in 5th) and runner-up Status Quo, and arguably Season 2 winners Super Cr3w and 4's We Are Heroes as well, struggling with low votes every week until they actually clinched the competition. Note that the fan favorites are the three third place crews in those seasons, Kaba Modern, Fanny Pak, and Massive Monkees. Very few fans take the show seriously as a competition anymore and try to just watch it for the sake of entertainment.

** Lollipop in season 4. From the start, the fan hatred was directed towards her, due to her taking major part in Teardrop, Taco and especially Barf Bag abusing. However, her team kept their winning streak long enough for Lollipop to protect Taco, and Book to become the main voting target in the team. This led many fans to accuse JacknJellify of bias towards Lollipop.

** Season 8 had Kevin LaRoy, who out of eight challenges he participated in, was nominated for elimination seven times, with the judges openly admitting in the latter half of the season that they had absolutely no expectation that Kevin would improve. Despite all of this, he managed to finish in 6th out of 30 artists competing that season.

** Season 9 has Juan Carlos, a [[SoBadItsGood]] roller skating dancer that has been put through both the first auditions and Vegas Week over superior acts like The Mighty Atom Jr. sheerly on the virtue that his terrible act is hilariously bad. Howard certainly doesn't think he's funny, but the other three judges disagree.

Personality can sometimes play a role, but it doesn't matter whether the contestant is a [[NiceGuy 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.

And yet, somehow, they survive for weeks and weeks. In shows where the evictions are decided by judges, there may be ExecutiveMeddling afoot, keeping a contestant on as a human ConflictBall to drive up ratings. One the other hand, in shows with public votes, people will often vote to keep on a contestant who's [[SoBadItsGood 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 [[{{Hatedom}} a hatedom]] that takes on a life all its own.

There is also another form of Elimination Houdini, commonly seen in shows like ''Series/{{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 NonGameplayElimination spares them a round, or the Elimination Houdini manages to talk their way out of elimination and avoids death. 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 TallPoppySyndrome kicks up.

* The British series Murder Game, where winner Andrew went to the Killer Game six (out of 8) times and survived (due to winning the 50-50 coin flip) before getting the correct killer in the finale, this is in contrast to the 2 other finalists who never been to the Killer Game until the finale.

** Golf Ball and Fries in season 2. Every time Team No-Name is up for elimination, they are always in the bottom 3 with someone else, due to Fries' [[DeadpanSnarker snarkiness]] and Golf Ball's [[InsufferableGenius bossiness]]. They both lived long enough to see IDFB though, becuase that someone else is always eliminated over them.

** Cloris Leachman got endorsed by [=VoteForTheWorst.com=], an ''Idol''-centric Web site that usually disregards ''DWTS''. That's pretty telling.

** Bill Engvall in Season 17. Despite being on the bottom of the judges' scores for awhile, he outlasted Elizabeth Berkley and Leah Remini.

* Kalle from the Finnish ''Idols 2008'' season. He got to the top four mostly thanks to 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.

** 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 [[SuicideByCop 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)

** 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.

*** 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.

** 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.

*** Noorul from Series 5 managed to get to Week 6 without appearing in the boardroom at all despite the fact he did virtually nothing on the tasks. Part of the reason he was fired on that episode was that Sir Alan was aware other candidates had complained about htis.

** 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 almost win the whole thing. Ev in the island was almost booted on several occasions but was also kept around thanks to twists.
** Wes and Casey's run in 'Fresh Meat' deserves extra perspective as to the immense stupidity of the rest of the cast (almost surprisingly so). They were only thrown in initially as due to long standing Challenge tradition, the "newbies" to the Challenge always get thrown in first and unfortunately, the Real World Austin cast had FOUR contestants that season which meant they were pretty much destined to team kill each other the first three weeks short of winning a challenge outright (which tends to be hard for rookies). After that they kept throwing them in due to Wes'...somewhat abrasive behavior (though they seemed to ignore the fact that OF COURSE Wes would be pissy, in his own words he was forced to eliminate his "best friend, his best friend's then fiancee and his then girlfriend" all within 3 consecutive eliminations. But the issue for the cast was, this season's Elimination Segment, 'The Exile' is unseen to the entire cast except the participants and of course TheHost. Which meant by the time that the other competitors would start sending in more seasoned veterans to take out Wes and Casey, the two were already vastly experienced at The Exile, while the vets came in with absolutely no information and are seeing it for the first time especially since Wes and Casey went out of their way to purposefully misinform the others of what the Exile was about. Even with Casey being TheLoad 95% of the time, they tended to steamroll every Exile and only finished in Third for the season due to Casey's inability finally catching up to them and running into teams that actually HAD Exile experience.

* A good example for ''Series/SoYouThinkYouCanDance'' 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 ShockingElimination 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 [[ShockingElimination shocking eliminations]] except arguably Pasha.
** 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.
** Many people seem to think that Season 5's Melissa Sandvig was also a Houdini. On Top 8 week, she was paired up with her original partner Ade and got an emotional contemporary piece which was lauded by the judges. The next night, she was safe from elimination and the then front-runner Janette left the show. Many fans are still bitter.
** Season ten had Jenna and Makenzie. Week after week, they ended up at the bottom. Week after week, they were saved over more competent dancers. It reached its max when the judges automatically saved Jenna and made Malece and Amy (the eventual winner) dance for their lives, despite the fact that neither of them were at the bottom before and Jenna was at the bottom several times. Finally, at the top ten, the two Houdinis were up for elimination. The judges eliminated Makenzie, and Jenna was booted the next week.
* ''Series/ProjectRunway'' 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 Casanova.
** 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).
** All Stars 6's Edmond Newton. He consistently sent out [[https://i.imgur.com/HRGrOLC.jpg atro]][[https://i.imgur.com/zPUFKpz.jpg cious]] [[https://i.imgur.com/y5h9sMF.jpg designs]] week after week, having only 2 weeks with good designs, and managed to end up 5th.
** 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 ''Series/TopChef'', only one truly stands out as an Elimination Houdini: Lisa Fernandes from ''Series/TopChef: 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.
** ''Series/TopChef: JustDesserts'' had Danielle who was often on the bottom but made it to the final three.

* Some contestants from ''Series/TheApprentice'' 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.
*** Syed from Series 2. He had already been in the boardroom in the first week before blowing the budget on a catering task by ordering 100 chickens, but managed to stay in to the final regular task (his fifth appearance in the boardroom).
*** Stuart from Series 6.
*** Noorul from Series 5 managed to get to Week 6 without appearing in the boardroom at all despite the fact he did virtually nothing on the tasks. Part of the reason he was fired on that episode was that Sir Alan was aware other candidates had complained about htis.
*** Myles from Series 9. He just about managed to avoid getting fired for his mistakes in the Dubai task by sheer luck of the opposition doing even worse. But the real best example of this was when he told Alex to go with the 'Deadly Dinners' idea in the food task, and ended up completely destroying any chance of the team winning in the process. Yet Alex was the one who got fired instead, despite the fact that his idea could have actually won the task. Thankfully, he then got fired after seriously messing up the next episode.
** ''CelebrityApprentice'' 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 televised ''Wrestling/WWEDivaSearch'' 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 SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome.

** 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.

* ''Wrestling/WWEToughEnough''
** The first season 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 ExecutiveMeddling 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. Watching Wrestling/AlSnow 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 [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome Crowning Moments of Awesome]].
** The 2011 revival made a conscious effort to defy this trope, since Stone Cold was the one given the decision to eliminate people. And in the case of Rima and Ryan, they were eliminated immediately when they were put in the bottom three for the third time.
** Due to the inclusion of a fan vote and his growing popularity among viewers, the 2015 {{revival}} has an interesting case where it's WWE themselves that consider Zamariah "ZZ" Loupe the Elimination Houdini, to the point where it was reported that they were actively attempting to get him voted off. So far, it hasn't worked.
* This phenomenon has produced not one, but two winners of the civilian seasons of ''Series/TheMole''. 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 on to 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.
** Jochem from season 17 of the Dutch series (''Wie is de Mol?'') was even luckier than the above U.S. examples. He constantly bungled challenges, got his allies eliminated by always suspecting the wrong contestants (though to be fair, the only contestant who ever figured out the Mole's identity in his season was the eventual winner), and would have been eliminated in the ''second'' episode if Yvonne hadn't completed the test slower than him or in the seventh episode if he hadn't used his joker then, and despite all this somehow made the final three.
-->'''Jochem:''' I dragged two alliances into the wrong hands, I think I lost 6,000 euros from the pot, I've lost my molebook, I lost my joker, and I put four questions in total on [name of the season's Mole]. Four questions out of all of them! It's by the hands and feet of God that I'm here.
* Jolette from ''La Academia'', the Mexican version of ''American Idol''. Despite her angry stage antics, she somehow managed to become TheWoobie 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 ''Series/RockOfLove 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 [[MyNaymeIs 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 ''Series/RockOfLove'', 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.
** Justified in Brandi's case. A single player was to decide who on the opposing team up for elimination would go home, so it would be logical to keep the weaker players on the opposing side to better their chances of winning. [[ManipulativeBitch Megan]] on the other hand should've been eliminated, which makes Frank The Entertainer's decision to eliminate Heat ([[MurderTheHypotenuse who he was in a love triangle with over Destiney]]) instead of Megan ([[WhatAnIdiot who he put up for elimination]] ''[[WhatAnIdiot for that very reason]]'').

* 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.

* 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 in ''Americas Best Dance Crew''. The first season had Fysh 'n Chicks (who finished in 5th) and runner-up Status Quo, and arguably Season 2 winners Super Cr3w and 4's We Are Heroes as well, struggling with low votes every week until they actually clinched the competition. Note that the fan favorites are the three third place crews in those seasons, Kaba Modern, Fanny Pak, and Massive Monkees. Very few fans take the show seriously as a competition anymore and try to just watch it for the sake of entertainment.
** Season 3's Fly Khicks took it up a notch by being saved ''three times in a row'' by the judges, making it up to 3rd place because they couldn't catch up with the level of the final 2 crews.
** And in season 5, it was Saltare and Blueprint Cru. Saltare was seemingly kept by the voters solely for their novelty (they used jump ropes, a very unique gimmick); Blueprint 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 Blueprint are from Canada, and thus none of their friends or family could vote for them, yet somehow they stayed on the show, and the only time they were truly saved by votes was in the top 3 week.
*** Blueprint Cru was more understandable, as they were easily one of the best teams of the season and the judges decided to save them over the other underwhelming teams.
*** Notably, the week after Saltare turned in one of the most disastrous, error-laden performances ever on the show, nobody was eliminated due to some mix-up in tallying the votes.
** In Season 6, Iconic Boyz and Street Kingdom were being regarded as this by fans. Iconic Boyz were considered good dancers for their age but not up to par with other groups and never placed in the bottom by their voters, 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 remained over other crews considered more talented.
** The aforementioned Fanny Pak suffered the same fate as Fly Khicks when they returned in Season 7, where despite giving out incredible performances, they were sent to the bottom nearly every week, and at one point the judges saved ''both'' them and another bottom 2 crew in one week because they gave the best performances of the night, before being in the bottom yet again the week after and eventually eliminated.
* ''Series/WhoWantsToBeASuperhero'' 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 SecretTestOfCharacter).
** 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 [[LargeHam to the hilt]] and impressed the audience (and Stan Lee) with his acrobatic skills.
* ''Series/StrictlyComeDancing''
** 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 Houdinis. 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 wasn't a contender for the glitterball.
** 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.
** It's been suggested that the creators have started intentionally including a "John Sergeant figure", most obviously the former MP Anne Widdecombe in series 8, who made it to week 10 by bowing to the inevitable and playing it for comedy.
** Judy Murray in the 2014 series. She would receive low marks from the judges consistently every week but the public vote kept her in the contest. It got to the point where the judges didn't seem to even bother giving her constructive criticism for her dances. When she was finally voted off, they all but called it a MercyKill.
** Gemma Atkinson in the 2017 series. She did well for the first couple of episodes, but after that consistently finished in the mid-to-low part of the judges' rankings, yet still made it all the way to the final over several much more talented and experienced dancers. In this case it likely wasn't so much her being an outright ''bad'' dancer, but a combination of her being MsFanservice and her purported feud with fellow contestant Alexandra Burke, which some have theorised has caused viewers to keep her in to see if it finally boils over on-screen.

* Its British counterpart ''Series/TheMurderGame'' had an even more of Houdini in Andrew who played the "Killer's Game" ''seven'' times without getting eliminated, until [[spoiler:the final episode where Andrew ends up being the only one to correctly name the murderer and ends up winning the game]].
* Chelsea from SciFi'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.
* ''Series/TheBiggestLoser'':
** Ron from season 7 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. [[spoiler:She got into the finals and placed third.]]
* In ''Series/ThereGoesTheNeighborhood'', 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.
* ''Series/TheXFactor'':
** The UK version:
*** Double act [[PortmanteauCoupleName Jedward]] on the sixth season 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 SoBadItsGood, 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.[[note]]There's a coincidence. Katie Waissel had once dated Michael Sophocles, an Elimination Houdini on the previous years' series of the Apprentice. Both were eliminated from their respective shows two episodes before the final.[[/note]]
*** The 2012 series gave us Rylan - a performer with no talent making his second out of three appearances on a competitive reality show in as many years. Due to a rabid fanbase and the supposed entertainment value, he made it all the way to the top six. Only after the two favorites to win were in the final two did the judges come to their senses.
** 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 [[ShockingElimination Rachel Crow]] instead. He finished in 4th place overall.

* In ''Big Brother Sim Edition 2'', [[ButtMonkey 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.
* Interestingly, ''Series/CanadasWorstDriver'' has had a few of these. Of course, on CWD, your goal is to leave as soon as possible, but some drivers were shortlisted several times yet lasted long. Examples include Billie Jean from Season 3, who was shortlisted every episode, yet was the fourth to leave, Ashley from Season 4, who was shortlisted 5 times and was named The Worst, and Diane, the final graduate from Season 8 who was shortlisted 3 times.

* [=MagicTheGathering=].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 Creator/{{Syfy}}'s special effects makeup competition ''[[Series/FaceOff 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]].
* ''Ink Master'' has had a couple:
** Season 4's Mark Longnecker is among the most notable - despite having never been in the top looks of any challenge, and being in the bottom an unprecedented 7 times, he still managed to skirt his way to the final four. When the eliminated players were asked at the finale who thought they should have outlasted Mark, ''almost the entire cast'' raised their hands.
** Season 8 had Kevin LaRoy, who out of eight challenges he participated in, was nominated for elimination seven times, with the judges openly admitting in the latter half of the season that they had absolutely no expectation that Kevin would improve. Despite all of this, he managed to finish in 6th out of 30 artists competing that season.
* 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 [[FaceHeelTurn 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, and when he finally did debut, it was against Wrestling/MarkHenry, who at the time was in his "destroy all my opponents and crush their legs" phase, and was quickly written off TV, and was then sent back to NXT. Not very hard to see who WWE wanted to win.
** Back in the first season there was David Otunga. Inexperienced in the ring and not incredibly skilled doing mic work, he managed to last all the way to the final two, though not without help, as once WWE flat-out fabricated an excuse to disqualify a contestant from a challenge to guarantee he won, making all the way to the final two over much more talented and popular wrestlers. The biggest reason seemed to be his connections, as he's married to singer-actress Jennifer Hudson, and WWE is always trying to increase its mainstream exposure.
* Many people feel this way about Alex from ''Series/TheGleeProject'', who was in the bottom three more than any other character (four weeks in a row), and complain that his CampGay diva personality and vocal range [[AuthorAppeal appeal]] to Ryan the most.
* In ''{{Machinima}} [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWuS9L_jctg 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 ''Series/TheBachelor'' 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 Glass House'', a FollowTheLeader show inspired by ''Series/BigBrother'' based on more AudienceParticipation, Erica fits this trope. out of all the people in the final three, she actually faced elimination three times. While Andrea did receive more nomination votes overall, she never received enough at once to be sent into Limbo.
* ''WebVideo/KawaiiVinnysMinecraftSurvivor'':
** Contestants [=EpicFailTeen=] and [=UGADawgs222=] were never safe, surviving two and four eliminations respectively before being eliminated.
** Season 5's [[spoiler: [=HufflePufficus=]]] was in seven [=TCs=] before being eliminated via tie-breaker.
** Season 6's [[spoiler: Amatsu and [=ToastCrumbley=]]] were in nine [=TCs=] with the latter [[spoiler: not doing well in challenges]] and still winning.
* ''Series/TheGenius'': Lim Yohwan in season 2. He managed to lose every single one of the main matches and still got to the finals while having zero garnets for the most of the season.
* Any queen on ''Series/RuPaulsDragRace'' who lipsyncs multiple times and survives:
** Jujubee on season 2 made it to the final 3 after winning three lipsyncs.
** Carmen Carrera never placed higher than safe, survived one lipsync before being eliminated, and then was brought back into the competition to continue competing.
** Akaisha, 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.
** Coco Montrese and Darienne Lake both survived 3 lipsyncs before being eliminated.
** Roxxxy Andrews survived ''5 times'' in the bottom (out of 7 episodes) during All Stars 2 and currently holds the record for most times being saved for elimination.
* ''WebAnimation/BattleForDreamIsland'':
** Snowball in season 1. Despite [[NiceJobBreakingItHero single-handedly botching up the challenge for his team]] and getting ''two thirds'' of the votes afterwards, [[spoiler: Teardrop was eliminated over him due to the new game mechanic taking place.]]
** Tennis Ball and Rocky in season 1 as well. They both survived '''three''' bottom 2's, [[spoiler: the latter even getting the most votes but being chosen to be safe over Golf Ball in the aforementioned mechanic.]]. They also have overall poor performances due to slowness and lacking arms. However, this is a case of KarmaHoudiniWarranty for both, with Tennis Ball getting [[spoiler: 10th via a contestant vote ''and'' a tiebreaker]], and Rocky placing [[spoiler: 6th in the closest vote ever.]]
** Golf Ball and Fries in season 2. Every time Team No-Name is up for elimination, they are always in the bottom 3 with someone else, due to Fries' [[DeadpanSnarker snarkiness]] and Golf Ball's [[InsufferableGenius bossiness]]. They both lived long enough to see IDFB though, becuase that someone else is always eliminated over them.
** Lollipop in season 4. From the start, the fan hatred was directed towards her, due to her taking major part in Teardrop, Taco and especially Barf Bag abusing. However, her team kept their winning streak long enough for Lollipop to protect Taco, and Book to become the main voting target in the team. This led many fans to accuse JacknJellify of bias towards Lollipop.

[[folder: Fan Film]]

* In {{Machinima}} [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWuS9L_jctg 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.

* WebAnimation/BattleForDreamIsland :