Claim to Fame Contestants Discuss Shocking Double Elimination: 'My Heart Dropped' (Exclusive)

Warning: This post contains spoilers for Claim to Fame season 3 episode 2.

Claim to Fame is keeping the surprises coming with season 3. 

In episode 2, which aired on Wednesday, July 17, the reality TV show cohosted by Kevin and Franklin Jonas gave contestants a shock as they went into the guess off, revealing at the last minute that it would be a double elimination. 

Of course, that wasn’t the most shocking moment as both guessers ended up guessing wrong — as a result of some sleuthing from other contestants in the house — and were ultimately sent home themselves. 

Speaking exclusively with PEOPLE, eliminated contestants Jill and Gracie Lou (whose real name is Gracie Hyland) discuss how that moment unfolded behind the scenes. 

“It was sickening hearing that,” Gracie says of the double-elimination twist. “My heart dropped to my stomach when I heard [Kevin and Franklin] say that, and I thought, ‘It's still early, we don't have any clue really who anyone is.’ I felt very nervous.” 

Jill echoes those sentiments saying she was eager to stay in the competition. As a result, she picked Miguel to guess, fully believing his celebrity relative was Antonio Banderas, which was a running theory in the house. However, as flashback footage shows, Miguel was working with Dedrick behind the scenes to throw everyone off. 

“I was just shocked that I was wrong. I had no clue anything was going on,” she explains, noting that she was “99% sure” she was right based on what everyone in the house was telling her. “It gave me confidence going into it. And then once I guessed wrong, I was just like, ‘Did I trust too much? Probably.’” 

As a result, her own celebrity relative was revealed to be her uncle John Stamos. While the reveal came as a surprise to the cast, Jill says she noticed several subtle giveaways about her relative around the house, including basketball clues for his Disney+ show Big Shot, Greek yogurt for his Oikos commercials, and of course, a San Francisco trolley for Full House.

Though she was sad to go home, she adds it was uplifting to hear Stamos’ sweet video message for her. “It was honestly incredible,” she says. “Being away from family, being away from my phone while I was there, I built a family with all the cast that was there, but just seeing that little bit of home while I was away was such a heartwarming experience. I'm so happy that I got to have that.” 

For Gracie, her elimination came after she was double-crossed by Naomi, who purposely lied to her about Adam’s celebrity relative being Dustin Hoffman. In the end, Gracie was sent home and her celebrity relative was revealed to be her uncle Jon Cryer. 

In the moment, Gracie says she didn’t realize she’d been betrayed by Naomi. “I really fully, truly thought I could trust what she said,” she explains. “After the fact, I started to process everything and then realized, ‘Oh, okay, that's what was going on.’” 

To make matters even more interesting, Naomi, whose clue hinted at her relative being a Brat Pack princess, later revealed in a confessional that her and Gracie’s celebrity relatives have a lot more in common than she realized, teasing they might have starred in a notable ‘80s film together.

While Gracie doesn’t give too much away about how that might play out later this season, she does admit, she “had an inkling” about Naomi’s relative while on the show. 

From the beginning, Gracie was playing the long game as she created a fake persona to make people think her celebrity relative was in country music. If she had gone further in the competition, she tells PEOPLE she would have tried to make people think she’s related to Billy Ray Cyrus, given her uncle’s connection to the “Achy Breaky Heart” singer.

“My uncle has been on Hannah Montana, so I wouldn't have to lie about being on set on Hannah Montana,” she says. “I wanted to separate myself and going into the house, I was like, ‘I can totally be a country girl.’” 

Though she was sent home, Gracie shares a sweet onscreen moment with her uncle at the end of the episode as he picks her up from the house. “It felt like such an honor,” Gracie says of the moment with Cryer. “He's such a wonderful person and he's very involved in my life and always has been. Growing up, watching him just be wonderful and amazing and then getting to share a moment on screen with him and work with him just really is something that I will cherish forever because not a lot of people get to do that with their relatives.”

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Claim to Fame airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. on ABC.