History Main / EliminationHoudini

* Case in point: Dat Phan, the first winner of ''Series/LastComicStanding''. He actually did quite well with audiences, though the rest of the contestants were the ones who felt he didn't belong on the show.
** And if you ask the other comedians from the most recent season, Iliza Schlesinger also counts.
* Leon Jackson, winner of ''Series/TheXFactor 2007'', though he was never in the bottom 2.

* 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 [[Website/{{Youtube}} YouTube Shorts]]-based tournament ''Boys vs Girls Tournament'' run by [=CapEditz219=], [[Literature/ClassroomOfTheElite Ayanokoji]] of all people became this where, despite his MemeticLoser status in the rest of the channel and the sheer amount of {{Reality Warper}}s, {{The Omnipotent}}s and people with {{Author Powers}}, he was still consistently matched up with other humans who are weaker than him. This got to the point where [[PhysicalGod The]] [[Website.SCPFoundation Koitern]] was eliminated before Ayanokoji and one person in the comments was listing off all of the people Ayanokoji has defeated thus far. After he was killed by [[VisualNovel/{{Danganronpa}} Junko Enoshima]], Wheel Force Ayanokoji was turned into an entire different character on the channel as he became a MemeticBadass as opposed to normal Ayanokoji’s MemeticLoser.

* 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 second season of ''Claim to Fame'' has Chris. In a show where contestants have to guess each other's celebrity relatives to eliminate them, no less than three contestants have incorrectly guessed Chris's relative and been eliminated as a result. It's not Elvis Presley, Elton John, or Billy Idol.

** 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.

** Due to its format (where a new artist was introduce every week), Season 7 is a difficult season to find an elimination houdini for, as good artists (such as Sarah Miller and Jime Litwalk) spent most (if not all) of their (short) run in the bottom. From the original contestants, however, there was Alex Rockoff, who, due to a combination of luck and sheer determination to beat St. Marq, survived three trips to the bottom before getting elimanted on his fourth (in episode 6).

* Fictional, but because the public voted in ''Sims Big Brother 5'', this still applies. Pamela was repeatedly put on the block and not evicted. Only when the housemates got to vote near the finals was she finally evicted from the house. She was more or less kept around ''solely'' because it seemed like anyone who was up against her on the block was evicted.

* ''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 2s, [[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, because that someone else is always eliminated over them.
** Another Season 2 example: In-Universe, Match was supposed to be eliminated in BFDIA 5a, but Pencil tied a rope to her leg to prevent her elimination, and when [=FreeSmart=] formed, put Gelatin on her head [[PaperThinDisguise to disguise herself… as a Tree]]. Unsurprisingly, she was later eliminated in BFDIA 5e due to evading elimination.
** 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.
* 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.

* The RealityShow TournamentArc of ''Anime/CaroleAndTuesday'' It pairs off the acts against each other in a bracket format, with the judges deciding who wins each rounds. As expected, fans of the show have disagreed with some of the judgment calls:
** OG Bulldog vs Carole and Tuesday: Our leads notably gave a performance that didn't match the quality people came to expect from them, which the judges took note of. Meanwhile, Bulldog surprised everyone with an impressive fusion of opera and ''rap.'' Instead, Bulldog was eliminated, partly because he lied about his tough guy image and was really just a nice guy. Many felt like he gave a stronger performance, and "not being honest about himself" was not a real criticism.
** 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 insanely catchy their song was. GGK was good, but only moved on because the judges hated the Sisters' song ''that much.''
** Angela vs Cybelle, Angela vs GGK: While no one thought the leads' [[TheRival rival]] Angela would lose to minor characters, many people thought she was much weaker than the people sent home. While her voice is impressive, her songs are considered bland and shallow (they're canonically manufactured by soulless AI) and less interesting than the others'. She skates by based the judges' unanimous love for her and her ability to adapt to different styles of music, rather than by pure talent or stage presence. This is especially true when she went up against GGK, who had well-choreographed dances in addition to singing well.
** It should be noted that of all of the songs above, Carole, Tuesday and Angela all sang pop songs. Pyotr, who won the judges over with a pop song, and GGK is the ''only'' performer who won a round without singing a pop song (because her competition was disqualified.) It gives the impression that the judges have a bias towards pop music and eschew the less mainstream performances.

** ''WebVideo/EscapeTheNight'': Aside from Joey, who has been confirmed to just be incredibly lucky each season to only have to participate in just one challenge, each season has a few contestants that somehow get a lot further then they should.

* ''WebVideo/EscapeTheNight'': Aside from Joey, who has been confirmed to just be incredibly lucky each season to only have to participate in just one challenge, each season has a few contestants that somehow get a lot further then they should.
** Season One has [[KnowNothingKnowItAll Matt]] [[DirtyCoward Haag]] and [[SpoiledBrat Sierra]] [[TheLoad 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 episode 6 and Matt dies in the next episode when EVERYONE votes him into the challenge.
** Season Two features [[LovableCoward Tyler]] [[NiceGuy Oakley]], he hasn't helped out as much as the other contestants, with the first time he contributes something to the teams efforts being episode 7. 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, [[TheScrappy Teala]] [[TheMillstone Dunn]]. She's notable for having contributed absolutely nothing to the plot or the group whatsoever and being the first contestant ever to have run out of voting cards(only half of the team was able to vote for Teala, when everyone wanted to vote for her). Hilariously enough, she doesn't even 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.

* ''WebOriginal/EscapeTheNight'': Aside from Joey, who has been confirmed to just be incredibly lucky each season to only have to participate in just one challenge, each season has a few contestants that somehow get a lot further then they should.

* ''WebShow/{{EscapeTheNight}}'': Aside from Joey, who has been confirmed to just be incredibly lucky each season to only have to participate in just one challenge, each season has a few contestants that somehow get a lot further then they should.

* ''WebShow/EscapeTheNight'': Aside from Joey, who has been confirmed to just be incredibly lucky each season to only have to participate in just one challenge, each season has a few contestants that somehow get a lot further then they should.

** 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]]'').

* Website/LemmysLand:One of the teams in "Lemmy's Awesome Race" is called Team What consisting of Princess Daisy, already a [[TheScrappy Scrappy]] in the Mario fandom, and the King who TookALevelInDumbass, much like all the other heroes on the site. After the one leg written by Lemmy, every other leg written by another user who completed the submission has them finishing in next-to-last place. They avoid elimination by the skin of their teeth due to instances such as Toad on Team Cream [[ThrowingTheFight throwing the race]] and being blasted by Bowser Jr.'s bullet bill blaster just ahead of the eliminated Team Cute. [[spoiler: They eventually win it all]].

* Parodied on Website/LemmysLand with "Lemmy's Awesome Race". One of the teams is called Team What consisting of Princess Daisy, already a [[TheScrappy Scrappy]] in the Mario fandom, and the King who TookALevelInDumbass, much like all the other heroes on the site. After the one leg written by Lemmy, every other leg written by another user who completed the submission has them finishing in next-to-last place. They avoid elimination by the skin of their teeth due to instances such as Toad on Team Cream [[ThrowingTheFight throwing the race]] and being blasted by Bowser Jr.'s bullet bill blaster just ahead of the eliminated Team Cute. [[spoiler: They eventually win it all]].

** Another Season 2 example: In-Universe, Match was supposed to be eliminated in BFDIA 5a, but Pencil tied a rope to her leg to prevent her elimination, and when [=FreeSmart=] formed, put Gelatin on her head [[PaperThinDisguise to disguise herself… as a Tree]{. Unsurprisingly, she was later eliminated in BFDIA 5e due to the

* ''Series/WhoWantsToBeASuperhero'', had Hyperstrike, who, 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).

* ''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).

-->-- '''Billie Green''', Website/BoycottTheCaf reviews ''Series/TheGleeProject'' [[note]]Cameron quit the next episode.[[/note]]

** 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}}]]). It didn’t help that [[spoiler:one week's elimination was thrown out entirely as part of a stunt to get host Nick Cannon back by having him appear ''as a contestant''.]] Fortunately, he placed third, and was revealed to be [[spoiler:Music/WizKhalifa]].

** Another (easily overlooked) example from season 8 was Gia Rose, as her resumé seems brighter than it actually is, due to each team only participating in an elimination challenge every other week. Out of the four elimination challenges Gia participated in, she was in the bottom three times (with the only time she was spared the bottom being a team challenge, where she was paired with the season's runner up, Gian Carle). When she eventually got eliminated shortly before the top 10, the judges even stated that her poor performance in the previous challenges as one of the reasons for her elimination. This was further cemented in ''Ink Master Angels'', where Gia was the angel with the most losses to her name