I am, embarrassing as it is to admit, a fan of reality TV. I love the drama, the arguing, and the on-screen romances and feuds.
I routinely watch The Bachelor and The Bachelorette with my mom, and I’ve seen all five seasons of The Circle on Netflix, but nothing compares to my all-time favorite: Claim to Fame.
Claim to Fame is a show featuring 12 relatives of well-known celebrities, and the goal of the contestants is to make it to the very end while keeping their celebrity relative a secret and guessing who everyone else in the house is related to. The hosts of the shows are Kevin Jonas and the fourth, non-famous Jonas brother, Frankie Jonas; even the house has its own claim to fame, as Katy Perry’s former home.
Although it might seem like a silly subject for a TV show, given it’s basically just nepo babies guessing who other nepo babies are related to, the show is really interesting. In 2022, Season One aired and popped up on my recommended list on Hulu, and after watching the first episode, I was immediately hooked.
Due to the first season mainly being unknown, they didn’t have many A-list celebrities, but as Seasons Two and Three were released, the celebrities seemed to grow in notoriety because of the show’s expanded audience and popularity. Each episode features three main components: a challenge, strategic planning (gossip), and a guess-off.
The challenge is either a group or individual activity that requires a variety of skills ranging from spelling bees and lie detector tests to sprints and obstacle courses, allowing everyone to have a fair shot at winning. If a contestant wins the activity, they’re given immunity from being guessed at the “guess-off” that night, and they get to choose a clue from the wine cellar, a pictionary clue about any player of their choosing alluding to who that player is related to. However, if a contestant is unfortunate enough to be in the bottom two of the challenge, they are at risk of becoming the guesser in that night’s guess-off. All challenges provide and are based on clues about the rest of the house’s celebrity relatives, so the players are rewarded for knowing the most about everyone else.
The next part, and my personal favorite, is the gossip. The gossip is the time between the challenge and the guess-off when those in the bottom two scramble to sway everyone’s opinion on who to vote as the guesser with last-minute speculating about who everyone is related to. These often involve the typical reality TV show drama with backstabbing, betrayal, theorizing, plotting, and, surprisingly enough, romance.
The final part of each episode is by far the most anticipated and tense—everyone votes on who they want the guesser to be out of the bottom two of the challenge that day. The voted guesser then has to go up to a platform, pick their target, guess the relative, and wait an excruciatingly long ten seconds to find out whether they guessed correctly and sent their target home or if they have to pack their bags.
When Season Three began airing this July, I made a bet with my brother about who would guess the most relatives correctly without the internet (very difficult for me as I always immediately google who everyone on the show is related to), but watching this season blind like the rest of the contestants made it much more enjoyable, and if you’re wondering, I won the bet five to four so his $5 now belong to me. Although some of this season’s cast made me want to chuck my phone at the screen, there were some really enjoyable cast members and personalities on the show that gave it the same touch as previous seasons.
So, if you’re looking for a new binge-worthy reality TV show to watch, chock full of all of the factors that make up the perfect formula for the genre, Claim to Fame is the one for you.
