Claim to Fame Eliminated Contestant Says Going Home Felt Like a 'Weight Lifted' Off Their Shoulders (Exclusive)

This post contains spoilers from the season 3 finale of Claim to Fame.

Claim to fame season 3 ups the ante with a two-parter.

In the first half of the finale, Shane found himself in the hot seat as Mackenzie, who had won the competition earlier in the episode, chose herself as the guesser. As a result, Shane was eliminated because she correctly guessed his famous cousin as the late actor Marlon Brando, who is his grandfather.

Speaking exclusively to PEOPLE, Shane recalls that he knew it was all over for him when Mackenzie lined up as the hit man.

“I knew this was it,” he explains. “I had several conversations with her that day before the guess. So I knew he was on the fence. At this point, I don’t even think she had my clue. So she wasn’t convinced of anything, and I was really pushing for Adam to be the one to guess because if we were, I wouldn’t have shared her clue with him. I was going to wait for the last challenge and wait until everyone was back in the house and really play with them to figure it out.”

“But Mackenzie, even though it was a great game she was playing, she was also very paranoid about everyone finding out who she was,” he adds. “It was like I was sitting there, and I was like I was in doubt. I didn’t have many ways left to say, ‘Gee, Adam just says he knows everybody. He doesn’t know anyone. I promise you it won’t.’ If we just committed to him being a hitter, I’d be in the top three. My clue would still be in her hands and they would realize it. So it would all come down to the last game. But I really thought that sounded a lot better than the actual outcome.”

Claim to fame Season 3: All the Celebrity Relatives Revealed

Although Shane notes that Adam has been a “wild card” this entire season, he ultimately decided to team up with him in the final episode, which he says was a strategic move as he tried to advance to the final three.

“I put myself in a corner. I had nothing left,” Shane notes. “Honestly, I knew I was always going to have to confide in Adam in this situation, but my thing was timing. I don’t know how much time I have to see if he can help me figure this clue out. Adam is a complete wild card. You don’t know what he’s going to do when you give him this information. I was very reluctant to do it, but at this point, I literally had no other options.”

While Shane is proud of the game he played in the house, he admits he was a little relieved that his famous cousin was finally revealed.

“It was like a weight lifted off my shoulders in a sense because I’d spent so much time hiding,” Shane explains. “Because it’s so natural for me, every time I introduce myself, I say, ‘Hi, my name is Shane Brando.’ So that was the hardest thing, trying to forget my last name for so long. So when I finally said, ‘Yes, my name is Shane Donovan Brando,’ it was like a weight was lifted off my shoulders.”

Shane and Marlon Brando.

Disney/Erica Hernandez; Santi Visalli/Getty

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Despite his grandfather being a movie legend, Shane notes that he had a pretty normal “grandson-grandfather relationship” with him growing up, recalling that he was not only incredibly wise, but also a great prankster.

“You never knew if there was a cushion under the seat that was bursting or you never knew what was going to happen next,” he says. “He always liked to play games. We would be at the table and play little games as a family. And they were also acting-based games.”

“The amount of knowledge and the way he acquired that knowledge is something admirable and something I wish I had,” he adds of his grandfather. “He had a library in his house full of books on the most unusual things, like marine biology, drums, and then mechanics and engineering. It was kind of amazing to see, but then, it also makes sense why he was the caliber of actor he was.”

As he was very close to his grandfather growing up, he also spent a lot of time around Brando’s close friend, Michael Jackson, who was revealed this season to be Dedrick’s uncle. Interestingly, Shane notes that he and Dedrick probably ran into Neverland when they were younger and didn’t even know it.

“The thing is, when you’re in Neverland, there’s always such a diverse group of people that I could probably meet Dedrick 15 times,” he notes. “There are so many people in Michael’s life and in his circle who just alternate in and out of Neverland so it’s hard to say if I am. I once had an ATV accident in Neverland and was helicoptered out of Neverland. And I told that story in the house. Dedrick overheard it, and after the taping was done, he said, ‘Yo, I was in the house when it happened.’ And I said, ‘That’s wild.'”

Shane on his claim to fame.

DISNEY/Chris Willard

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While his grandfather serves as his “claim to fame”, midway through Season 3, Shane became known for his signature chicken wing necklace that he wore throughout the series. Although the necklace started as a joke, over time it developed into an entire brand for him.

“For me, it’s like a little insight into my sense of humor and kind of who I am,” he says of the necklace he made and sells on his TikTok. “It wasn’t really supposed to go the way it did, but after the first day, after the reaction I got, I was like, ‘Okay, man. I will really wear this chain. And we will develop it,’ he says. “That’s when I started coming up with the slogan ‘feel crunchy’. But I really wore it to ground myself, to remind myself every day, this is just a game. Don’t take it too seriously. Have fun with him. It was a great experience. Now I have a thousand chickens on the chain for sale.”

In fact, he already has plans to expand the business. “I have key chains. I’m working on trying to make slides that will be fried chicken wings, like a sandal slide,” he notes. “Then I also work on making shirts. Again, I didn’t go into the show thinking that was going to be the outcome. I did the show and I was like, ‘Hey, this could actually be something. Maybe I should start working on this.'”

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Claim to fame season 3 is available to stream on Hulu.

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Source: HIS Education