Season two of ABC’s hit reality series Claim to Fame is off to a dramatic start after Tom Hanks’ niece, Carly Reeves, had a full-on meltdown following her elimination in the premiere episode.
On Monday (26 June), the competition show, co-hosted by brothers Kevin and Frankie Jonas, kicked off its second season with a new batch of celebrity relatives, all of whom must conceal their identity and lineage in an attempt to secure their own fame and fortune.
Through a series of challenges and formed alliances, each competitor seeks to avoid their industry connection being uncovered to ultimately win the coveted $100,000 prize (£78,000).
At the end of season two’s episode one, “Megastars and Meltdowns”, Reeves’s fellow contestant Hugo correctly identified her celebrity relative as Academy Award-winning actor Hanks, 66, leading to her elimination from the show.
Immediately following Hugo’s correct guess, Reeves burst into tears. As she left the room and made her way up the stairs to pack her bags, she let out a shrill scream.
With the cameras still following her, she sobbed and decried the bench clue that was shown earlier in the episode as a nod to Hanks’s beloved film Forrest Gump.
“His freakin’ clues are so freakin’ obvious,” she wailed. “There’s literally no reference to benches on any other movie. Even [fellow contestant] Gabriel found that out. He’s not even, like, smart.
“I didn’t even get to do any challenges!” Reeves added. “I don’t deserve this. I should have more camera time. I should be aired longer!”
The viral clip has been branded one of the “greatest ever” TV moments by comedian and presenter Dara O’Briain.
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Speaking to USA Today about the upsetting outcome, Reeves said she was “first shocked, then sad, and then I was really angry”.
“I thought that my clues were just super easy. I felt like I didn’t get as easy a game as everyone else,” she explained. “They could have used a million different clues from all of his different movies, but they decided to use the biggest movie of his and make three clues about that.”
She continued: “I thought I didn’t get a good shot at it, and I just felt like it was all kind of planned to make me go home. But in reality, I know that it’s just a game, and people had their theories about me, and they were right.”
Reeves, 39, is an actor herself who made her on-screen debut in Hilary Duff’s 2004 movie Raise Your Voice. She later appeared alongside her uncle in the 2011 romantic comedy Larry Crowne.
Claim to Fame airs Mondays at 8pm EST on ABC.
