Tonight, after a week away, the third season of ABC’s Claim to Fame will come to a close with a two-episode finale. As a huge fan of this show, I’m so excited to see who manages to pull out a win for Season 3. But, whether you’ve been playing along the whole time or are wanting to get on board now, I wanted to prepare you for the finale by going over some of what’s happened so far, who my guesses are for the final four contestants, and some of my big questions heading into tonight.
NOTE: The article will contain spoilers for the first six episodes of Claim to Fame Season 3. It will also have educated guesses of who the players are related to that might be spoilers if they’re correct… but have not been confirmed.
The Final Four
After starting with 11 contestants, we are now down to the Final Four. This comes after many of the former players have basically shot themselves in the foot with incorrect guess-off guesses. Most recently, this included Danny, who took aim at Mackenzie but missed. That led to Danny’s celebrity relative being revealed as Marc Anthony… which the gang already knew, but episode 5 guesser Dedrick chose to go after Adam rather than accept his housemate’s advice. C’est la vie.
Anyway, let’s recap who the final four in the house are — and who I personally believe they are likely related to.
Adam
In episode 6, Hud pulls Adam’s wine bottle clue, which contains emojis for suggesting this star was hot in the 90s, is a singer, and love is somehow involved. There’s also a clue that seems to show a ball and a billboard — which I believe is supposed to be “ball”+”ad” or “ballad.”
After making those connections, the name that came to mind for Adam’s celebrity relative was Michael Bolton — and, immediately after thinking that, it struck me like, well, a lightning bolt. Not only does Adam actually kind of sound like Bolton but also is a dead ringer for him if you look closely. Plus, those lightning decorations (which led to an incorrect Owen Wilson guess by Dedrick) would also add legitimacy to this theory. Therefore, I’m locking this one in.
Hud
Little ditty ‘bout Hud and… this game? Okay, so I’m not Weird Al — but I am confident about one thing: Hud’s celebrity relative is John Mellencamp. Once again, the key piece of my reasoning comes down to his wine bottle clue that I read as “cherry bomb artist who hurts so (sew) good.”
Sure enough, Mellancamp has songs titled “Cherry Bomb” and “Hurts So Good.” Beyond that, there have been clues about “small town” singers and literal melons. I do want to rewatch and see if they also worked in any Cougar references. Oh, and I’m pretty sure there was a chili dog reference, which would again point to the song “Jack and Diane.” Yeah, this one’s a lock for me.
Mackenzie
Not to sound like a broken record here, but I’d also probably have no idea who Mackenzie was if it weren’t for her wine bottle clue. This one also took me a while to decipher — especially the “monkey for sale ice cube” section. However, I believe these three images are actually “ape + rent + ice,” meant to be read as “Apprentice.” So, the clue reads “6 foot 6 country musician who won Apprentice.”
As someone who watched Penn Jillette in the finals of Celebrity Apprentice All-Stars (and bought his ice cream at Walgreens), I know that Trace Adkins won that season. He also seems like a pretty tall guy but, to be sure, I checked Google, which confirms he’s indeed 6’ 6″. That’s good enough for me — and I’d bet my Honky Tonk Badonkadonk that I’m right on this one too.
Shane
Finally, we come to the one player whose wine bottle clue we have yet to see. As a result, I’m less sure about this one — but the previous episode did shine some light on Shane’s celebrity relative.
During the episode 6 game, it was revealed that someone’s claim to fame involved the original Superman movie. Since I don’t think any of the other contestants’ relatives have anything to do with this film (at least not based on who I believe them to be), I have to assume this was Shane’s clue. And who from the film would I suspect is Shane’s relative? I’m going to have to go with Marlon Brando, who played Jor-El. Of course, this begs the question: will Shane make another player an offer they can’t refuse?
My Questions Going Into the Finale
Even though I think I know who each contestant’s Claim to Fame is, there are still some big questions as I have for tonight. Questions like…
Is Adam a low-key mastermind?
There’s no nice way to say it, but Adam hasn’t always seemed like the brightest bulb while appearing on the show. Granted, this could always just be played up in the edit — but could it also be an angle Adam actually concocted?! After all, we’ve seen other contestants lean into deceptive storylines about themselves to varying levels of success. So, it’s not outside the realm of possibility that he really could have been “acting dumb” this whole time.
For example, after making one of the few right guesses of this season and sending Naomi home, Adam publicly thanked Hud for the info — which was something Hud wasn’t too happy to take credit for. In my mind, this was a deliberate play from Adam that moved the heat to Hud while fitting perfectly into Adam’s aloof persona. Because of this, I would not be shocked if we got a huge reveal montage that puts Adam’s full plan into greater perspective.
Will the Brat Pack kids finally talk about it?
As in season’s past, the finale for Season 3 will see cast-off housemates return to either help or sabotage the remaining contestants. This means that we should get to see Naomi and Gracie Lou reunite as well. Now that we’re all aware they’re related to Molly Ringwald and Jon Cryer respectively, will they get to chat about their Brat Pack — and specifically Pretty in Pink — connection? I sure as heck hope so!
What’s with the chicken wing?
Considering that I now think I know who Shane’s celebrity relative is, it only makes me more interested in his signature chain. Surely he’s going to tell us all about it, right? RIGHT?!
Hopefully these questions will be answered and my predictions will be proven correct during the two-part finale of Claim to Fame — airing August 28th on ABC and the next day on Hulu.