Claim to Fame 2’s players don’t have a clue–especially about musicals!

As their numbers dwindle, Claim to Fame 2‘s players have some increasing confidence, both in their allies and in their guesses.

Chris and Gabriel are the two most-clued-in players, and are working together—at least for now. “We have a lot of power together,” Chris said. “I just hope that we can continue to work together until we don’t need to, and that time will come. It’s coming quickly.”

But who would it come for first? J.R. reflected the house’s desires: “We have to find a way to get Chris out of the game.”

What’s amazing is that the identity of Chris’s relative may have been opaque, but the clues are getting very specific—yet they are still outside the players’ range of knowledge.

Elton John and the Amazing Technicolor Reality Show

During the challenge, Karsyn read a clue that Chris’s relative was known for a Las Vegas residency and an “amazing couloured dream coat.”

That confused them until Hugo suggested Elton John, and Monay mapped clues onto Elton John, including clues already used for Neil deGrasse Tyson.

The kids don’t seem to have any knowledge of musicals, or the work of Andrew Lloyd Webber, or the musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat.

So of course they had no idea that show is one of Donny Osmond’s iconic roles.

We’ve seen this kind of error quite a few times this season, where players misread part of a clue or ignore a part just to fit the rest with whatever idea they’ve locked into—kind of like when they thought Chris was related to Elvis.

The error here was to just skip over the “dream coat” part of “colourful coat.” Also why did “colourful” use the British spelling? That’s the only part that could point toward Sir Elton John!

Monay, Karsyn, and Hugo didn’t know if Elton John was from Utah, which is a thought I doubt has been thunk before.

Hilariously, Gabriel later suggested that the colorful coat could point to “Joseph, from the Bible,” and Monay and Karsyn made fun of him. So, so close!

In other bad guesses, Monay suggested the “teen idol” in Chris’ clue could be literal, i.e. Billy Idol, who did get his start in the late 1970s, but I don’t think was an actual idol until the 1980s.

The challenge had several twists: The players competed in pairs, with no immunity and with the clue going to both members of the winning pair.

There was just one clue left, Gabriel’s, so he was dead-set on winning and getting it for himself—and preventing others from seeing it. Luckily, his challenge win meant that he could choose the teams:

• Gabriel and Chris
• Karsyn and J.R.
• Monay and Hugo

They competed at the same time, with each team having two bags of shredded paper to open. In those were thicker strips that, when assembled, created pixilated images of the other four players. On the back: censored dossiers that had some revealing clues.

They had to work on two puzzles first, look at the clues, and then move on. They were allowed to look at the dossier clues for as long as they wanted, but to win the challenge, they had to finish all four puzzles first. I like that choice, which created some minor tension between Gabriel and Chris.

While Chris wanted to look carefully at Monay’s clue, Gabriel went into “panic mode,” and they moved on in order to get the win.

Karsyn and J.R. were not far behind, but they were Gabriel and Chris’s only competition. Partnered with Hugo, Monay laughed, “This is not going to go well,” and that was before Hugo got a paper cut. I’m a little saddened that we didn’t get a scene of Kevin and Frankie Jonas kneeling over Hugo and talking to a doctor while he bled all over the carpet.

Among the clues we saw were J.R.’s, confirming that his relative was the “first LGBT” something, more evidence that his relative is indeed Lil Nas X.

Chris was stressed that the words “Mormon” or “Utah” would appear, and while Utah did, that was not as revealing as he’d worried it was.

As to the actual rebus puzzle clue, Gabriel and Chris looked at it together. It read: person with a stroller + 2 + greater than symbol + 10 babies + ampersand + drum + star

So it’s a parent to 10 kids and a drumming star? Gabriel told us that we’d know who “the young man who’s been pushing out baby after baby after baby after baby…” He kept repeating that phrase, and eventually ended with “…and that’s my celebrity relative.”

Ah, so Nick Cannon—another Masked Singer cast member! Nick was in Drumline—though I don’t think a single drum says “Drumline.” (Could someone please deliver a box of condoms and COVID vaccines to the set of The Masked Singer?)

However, the clue said he had 10 babies. I had to Google this, because I don’t keep track on my Nick Cannon’s Sperm Travels calendar, but he’s fathered 12 children, 11 of whom are still alive. So is it not Nick Cannon, or was the clue incorrect/imprecise? I am willing to give the producers some credit here; they’re working under a budget, and keeping track of Nick Cannon’s kids would take an entire research department.

Correction: As someone noted in the comments, I ignored the greater-than symbol, thus making this paragraph an example of what I was accusing the players of earlier in this recap. The irony! My apologies.

Anyway, none of this helped Chris, who was unable to decode the clue, and Gabriel did not offer any assistance.

Chris and Gabriel were able to choose the bottom two: Gabriel picked Hugo, and Chris put himself in. Chris wanted to take a shot at Karsyn, thinking her relative is Dale Earnhardt, Jr., and telling us, “I don’t feel comfortable having anyone else.”

The rest of the players, however, unanimously chose Hugo to be the guesser, so they could target Chris.

Hugo did indeed call out Chris, and then guessed that Chris was related to Elton John. Nope!

Hugo was revealed to be Hugo Wentzel, grandson to President Jimmy Carter and son to Amy Carter. “I love him so much,” Hugo told the other players. “I stand for everything he stands for. He believes in for equality for everyone.”

Hugo told us that Jimmy Carter had “recently been put into hospice because he has been very sick, which is very sad.” It is very sad; the Carter Center announced that decision in February, which means Claim to Fame 2 filmed this spring, some time after that announcement.

Before he hugged everyone goodbye, Hugo addressed his grandfather, who’s 98: “I will do everything I can to keep your legacy alive,” Hugo said. “Lead with love.”