Claim to Fame season 2 winner Gabriel played an impeccable game which led to his well-deserved win. During the finale, Gabriel was revealed to be Nick Cannon’s younger brother, Gabriel Cannon. Until the second to last challenge, Gabriel still had his fellow competitors convinced that he was related to an NFL star. They were shocked to find out that his celebrity relative wasn’t an athlete.
Claim to Fame season 2 lived up to its promise of A-list celebrity reveals. They included Carly (Tom Hanks’ niece), Travis (Neil deGrasse Tyson’s son), Jane (Dolly Parton’s niece Jada Star), Shayne (Eddie Murphy’s daughter), Cole (Alicia Keys’ brother), and Olivia (Jenny McCarthy’s niece). The other contestants who were revealed were Hugo (President Jimmy Carter’s grandson), J.R. (Lil Nas X’s brother), Karsyn (Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s niece), Chris (Donny Osmond’s son), and runner-up Monay (J.B. Smoove’s daughter). Gabriel bested all of them and was crowned the Claim to Fame season 2 winner. Here’s why he deserved to win the $100,000 prize.
Gabriel Won The Most Challenges
Gabriel won six challenges, including the finale competition. Because he won so many challenges, Gabriel was able to open multiple Wine Room puzzle clues. He was a whiz at solving them, so he gained a lot of information from them. Because he won so much, Gabriel was also able to keep his own puzzle clue safe until the end of the game. It was the last one to be opened, and he was there to see it, along with Chris, because they’d won that week’s challenge.
Winning the final competition allowed Gabriel to be in control of whether or not he was the Guesser in the final Guess-Offs. By choosing Monay to guess Chris’ true identity, he was able to keep himself safe for the final Guess-Off. He then chose to guess that Monay was related to J.B. Smoove, rather than have her guess his celebrity relative. When Gabriel’s relative was revealed, Monay said that she knew he was related to Nick Cannon, so it was a game-winning move by Gabriel to be the Guesser.
Gabriel Had A Strong Social Game
Gabriel’s social game was terrific. He was personable and funny, making friends while gaining allies. His secret alliance with Chris was one of the best moves of the game because it allowed them to share information and find out clues about every single person in the house. Although Gabriel posed a huge threat, everyone loved him, and they didn’t want to see him go. Gabriel was entertaining for viewers to watch as well, with his hilarious commentary.
Gabriel Played With Integrity
Gabriel played Claim to Fame with integrity and kept his word to his allies. The only exception was when Monay asked him to pull her Wine Room clue to keep it within their alliance, and he shared it with Chris in order to try to decipher it. Gabriel did this because he was able to figure out that the clue revealed that Monay’s relative was a comedian who appeared on both Saturday Night Live and Curb Your Enthusiasm, but he didn’t know who that person was. In the end, neither did Chris.
Gabriel knew that showing Chris the clue was a betrayal of Monay, but he made things right by not asking her questions about it during the lie detector challenge. He could’ve asked her if her relative ever appeared on Curb Your Enthusiasm in order to get more information from her, but he kept it secret from the other competitors. Gabriel also protected J.R. after he figured out that he was related to Lil Nas X.
Gabriel was very hurt when Chris broke his trust after promising to keep his clue a secret, and then showing it to Karsyn. At the time, Chris thought that Karsyn was about to be guessed, so he tried to get her help deciphering Gabriel’s clue before she left the house. However, Karsyn didn’t end up leaving that week, so Chris wanted to tell Gabriel the truth about what he’d done before someone else told him. What Chris didn’t know was that Gabriel had overheard the conversation. He already knew that Chris had shared his clue with Karsyn.
When Chris told Gabriel the truth, Gabriel revealed that he already knew. He told Chris that he was shocked that he didn’t even sleep on it, but instead betrayed him without thinking twice about it. Chris was apologetic, but also explained to Gabriel that it was part of the game. Gabriel was angry with Chris, and their argument escalated. However, Gabriel later apologized and told him that he lashed out because he was so hurt. Gabriel was fiercely loyal to his allies, and couldn’t imagine breaking his word to them.
Gabriel Had Strong Pop Culture Knowledge & Figured Out Chris
Although Gabriel didn’t know who Monay’s celebrity relative was at first, he was able to help figure out many of the others including J.R.’s true identity as Lil Nas X. However, his greatest achievement was finally figuring out Chris’ true identity. Throughout the competition, three competitors were eliminated when they guessed Chris wrong. They were Jane who guessed that he was related to Elvis Presley, Hugo who said Elton John, and J.R. who incorrectly thought he was Billy Idol’s family member.
Monay and Gabriel knew that Chris’ clue meant “Puppy Love Teen Idol in the ’70s,” but they had trouble coming up with a name. Monay decided that they should role-play and imagine themselves in a ’70s club, watching a teen idol perform. At that moment, Gabriel finally mentioned the Osmonds, and said that they were watching Donny Osmond perform. Monay realized that Gabriel was right, and he had finally solved the mystery of who Chris really was. It was an exciting scene that was the culmination of weeks of detective work and wrong guesses from other contestants.
Gabriel Kept His Celebrity Relative Secret Until The End
Gabriel did a fantastic job of keeping his relative secret until the end of the competition. He did this in two ways: by lying and by winning challenges. Gabriel had his fellow competitors convinced that he was related to an NFL star from premiere night all the way until the second-to-last challenge. During the lie detector challenge, Gabriel was able to fool them with his answers by acting like he was upset that they figured out that he was related to a professional football player. During the dossier challenge, J.R. was so convinced that Gabriel was related to NFL star Julius Peppers that he didn’t even read Gabriel’s clues.
Gabriel was also able to keep his Wine Room clue safe because he won so many challenges which prevented others from choosing it. The clue was very revealing of Nick Cannon as the symbols were interpreted as “Father to over 10 children and Drumline star.” Gabriel might’ve been eliminated much earlier if he hadn’t won so many challenges.
Gabriel was the ideal Claim to Fame player with a perfect game strategy. Like season 1 winner L.C., who was revealed to be Keke Palmer’s sister, Loreal Chanel Palmer, he was a strong competitor with a stellar social game. Her Wine Room puzzle clue was also the last one to be pulled, which, after two seasons, seems to be an established strategy for winning the whole game. Gabriel was a powerful contestant who was entertaining to watch, along with being loyal and true to his friends. Gabriel has set the bar very high for contestants on future seasons of Claim to Fame.
