Elimination Houdini / Big Brother

Occasionally, a houseguest who is continuously nominated for eviction survives, or they wind up dodging the bullets.

UK

• The way that the UK version works is that everyone casts two nominations, and the ones with the most nominations are put up on the block, against public voting. Some contestants actually do receive a large number of nominations or are put up on the block (sometimes consecutively) against the public vote, but manage to survive, or never receive enough from fellow houseguests to be nominated. (Rex and Mohamed in the 2008 series, for example, received plenty of nominations but never enough at one point)
• Big Brother 2009. We have Freddie/Halfwit (long story), who received 45 nominations total and was put up for eviction a total of eight times in the season. (Five of those week were consecutive!), but he managed to survive with sometimes way over 60% of the public vote of his favour before his luck ran out and he was evicted on Day 72.
  • Marcus also received 46 nominations, but many of them were spread out...however he was put up four times in a row, although two of them were when there were more than ten people on the block. (Oftentimes a case of other housemates breaking the rules and being nominated as punishment)
• In series 15 (2014), Pauline used her Killer Nomination on Jale. This meant Jale faced eviction each and every single week she was in the house. She survived three evictions.
• Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag, aka Speidi, runners-up on Celebrity Big Brother 11 despite having the highest percentage (100%) in rate of nominations received. It later came out that they had a secret investor in America paying for them to stay in.
• Louis Walsh in the Celebrity Big Brother revival series in 2024. He went up for eviction three times, but as it was vote to save rather than vote to evict, managed to survive each one. Then on St. Patrick's Day, Big Brother asked a random housemate to come to the Diary Room, where they were given a secret task that involved choosing a housemate to evict by putting a toy snake on their bed; Fern Britton was the one who went, and she chose Louis. It was then revealed that the chosen housemate had luck on their side, and Louis was not only made immune to this round's nominations but was also guaranteed a place in the final. A lot of viewers believe that the producers knew that Louis was unlikely to go to the Diary Room in that instance, and that anyone else who went would choose him to evict, and had intentionally set things up to send him to the final. Although after the upcoming eviction took place, it was revealed that there was going to be a shock eviction based purely on the public vote, with Louis being included among the remaining celebrities to vote for. He was saved yet again, though.
• There was also Fern Britton herself, who also had to face the public vote three times, and ended up unpopular with viewers during the last week of the show. Yet despite this, and the chants of "Get Fern out!" on the last eviction night, she had enough votes to stay in, and also enough votes to avoid the shock eviction that same week.

Australia

• Camilla from Season 6 in Australia. She was up for eviction ten out of thirteen possible times. She survived all of them and ended up taking second.

US

• Season 9's Sharon. Despite winning just 1 HOH, She made it to the final four by doing what 90% of reality contestants can't do...keeping her mouth shut. Despite being on the block five times in a row, she was spared because she would sit in her bed and chew on her lip while everyone else was being yelled at by James, watching Chelsia have a meltdown & crush all the Easter Eggs, listening to Joshuah's put downs & Sheila's whining, and accusing Natalie of having a million secret alliances. Her elimination from the game resulted in quite the controversy, since the Guide Dang It! answer had cost her the challenge. Had she gotten it right and won Head of Household or veto, Ryan would have said, "Well I got an alliance with Sharon, so I vote to evict YOU!". Sharon even purposely dropped out of an endurance challenge saying she had a bad back, which was, according to her, the biggest lie she made in the game.
  • Other people have actually used this strategy, to appear to be the this in order to make it to the end. While Monica of Big Brother 2 didn't know it, this was more or less her strategy...of course the game was new so simply staying back and keeping her mouth shut (For the most part) was an effective way to reach the final three. (Had Nicole not won the final HOH, it was likely Will would have taken her to the final two) Dr. Will and Kevin also tried to play this strategy to never win Head of Household and always appear to be floating under the radar. Sadly it only worked with Dr. Will once, and Kevin was recognized as a big threat despite appearing to fall out of several challenges early.
• Natalie in Season 11. Despite having proven that she's a backstabbing snake (to the point of abandoning Kevin, her only ally left in the house, to go collect more money when he was trapped by Pandora's Box. She didn't even tell anyone else how to free him! She later made up a lame excuse about not wanting anyone else to free him when confronted about it afterward, then choosing to sit out of the most important veto in the season to see her boyfriend when Kevin needed that veto.) and having lied since the beginning (she told them she was 18. She's really 24!), she still had everyone snowed over until they realize her backstabbing nature. She finished 2nd, behind Jordan by 5-2.
• Brendon in Season 12. He was a target since week one. And yet he's made it to 6th place, despite being constantly gunned for and escaping elimination week after week. The houseguests even lampshaded how he made it so long with such a large target on his back.
  • His fiancée (and eventual wife) Rachel, winner in season 13, who was nominated 5 times. Week 4 and 6; Brendon took a bullet for her. Week 5; Kalia put up a pawn that ended up going home (per his request). She was put up again at the Double Eviction; she got saved on a tiebreaker. She managed to win the season after the most blatantly contrived bailout or biggest luck spree ever in the history of Big Brother, in addition to an alliance with Porsche later on.
• Frank in Season 14. Through seven rounds of nominations, he has been on the block five times. Even when it seems like he finally goes, he manages to be saved by the houseguests evicting a perceived bigger threat or by the introduction of a twist (the coaches entering the game) He has been either the HOH or a nominee every week before being finally evicted Week 8, and only because he was ineligible to compete in the HOH that week and trusted Dan's lies.
• Spencer in Season 15, nominated nine times, faced eviction eight of those times, and spent four consecutive weeks on the block. He finished 3rd
  • Elissa also from Season 15, nominated 5 times and faced eviction for 3 times, and was the only contestant besides Spencer that made the jury with eviction votes. Finished in 6th.
  • McCrae also from Season 15 before being finally evicted in 4th. He hasn't been nominated until 3/4ths through the game, despite being a huge threat physically and mentally.
• Frankie in Season 16, with Executive Meddling manipulating a challenge, allowed him to most likely skirt on by for another week. Not only that, Frankie had Derrick and Cody gunning for him - but a swift change of plans pretty much saved him and Zach.
  • Victoria in Season 16, nominated ten times and survived nine, though Tropes Are Not Bad as the fans were not unhappy when she survived and actually started rooting for her after surviving so many.
  • Donny from Season 16 also qualifies. People had been gunning for him since Week One, fearing how nice he was as his status as an Ascended Fanboy. Yet time after time, he narrowly escaped eviction until he placed 8th due to mostly competitions wins and being in Team America.
• Victor in Season 18. Where to begin? After being the third evicted houseguest, Victor won the Battle Back competition and reentered the game on Day 23. Five weeks later, he's on the block and evicted once again, but he just ends up coming right back in after outlasting the other jurors in a competition very shortly after his apparent elimination. He made it to the final 5, where he was evicted for good.
  • JC in Season 20 is first put up on the nomination block on Day 86, eleven weeks into the game, when there are only six Houseguests remaining. That's pretty impressive in a season full of blindsides and flipped votes.
• Taylor was pretty much this in 24 - and one of the few ones to win. She faced the block a total of six times, but almost every time was saved by some form of hail mary (Paloma's Non-Gameplay Elimination, Ameerah&Nicole flipping the votes against Pooch, the Leftovers, Monte choosing to take her over Turner) and until the leftovers, was shunned by almost everyone. However, she managed to win by playing a social game - having less of a visible resumé than fellow houseguests Monte and Turner, but willing to actually speak with more people in the game.
• Jag in 25, especially so since he had been evicted in Week 4 unanimously but was kept in the game due to Matt's power of invincibility. Once Cameron, the biggest comp threat in the game, was evicted, Jag would go on to win a majority of the competitions afterwards.

Canada

• Talla in Big Brother Canada 1, finished 4th despited nominated 4 consecutive times.
• Sabrina in Big Brother Canada 2. Unable to win any challenges, yet managed to become the runner-up and win $20,000 because both Jon and Neda knew she'd be easy to win against.
• Pawn star Brittnee in Season 3 even lampshaded this, having finished in 4th despite being nominated 6 times.