‘Claim to Fame’: Travis, Son of Neil deGrasse Tyson, Speaks Out on His Elimination and Reveals the Cast’s Reaction to Carly’s Meltdown

Warning: This post contains spoilers for Claim to Fame Season 2, Episode 2, "Don't Get Chummy, You Dummy!"

Another celebrity relative has gone home on Claim to Fame. This week, it's Travis Tyson, the son of scientist Neil deGrasse Tyson, whose identity was correctly guessed by a fellow contestant. Tyson did have a slightly emotional moment in the second episode of the season, once costar Jane revealed that others in the house were eyeing him for elimination. However, his exit was certainly more graceful than what the world witnessed last week, when Carly Reeves, niece of Tom Hanks, had what can only be described as a tantrum while packing her bags.

The Messenger caught up with Travis Tyson to talk about why he got a bit upset about being targeted, how the whole house reacted to Carly's meltdown and how his famous father felt about him doing the show. 

On hearing Carly screaming…

Travis Tyson: We were pretty dumbfounded. We, as a house, had established that no matter what, whoever was going to be the guesser that night, they would guess Carly. So that was expected for us, and we were all pretty confident in the guess as well — of Tom Hanks. 

However, what we did not see in advance was just how loud she was screaming. The guess-off area, it's near the house, but it's not like we're super close to the house. So we could hear her from relatively far away so loud. It was actually insane as we waited for her to pack up her stuff. And it just continued… it was like 10 minutes or something, maybe even more — honestly time works differently when you're there.

On being determined to have a more graceful exit…

Tyson: I think in that moment, we all took a step back collectively and said, "OK, this is real," for one. And two, at the end of the day, this is still a game, as well. So we don't have to take everything too personal. Although a lot of the drama — like real drama — comes a bit later into the show, I think, at least from what I've heard. But I don't know that much, since of course, I was eliminated in week two. 

On being upset by Jane's revelation that he was the second target for elimination…

Tyson: I wasn't expecting it. I mean, I was sort of expecting it — since I won the first challenge, I knew there was a target on my back. However, I had hoped that my celebrity relative's identity wouldn't be thrown around so quickly, especially since there was almost no hard evidence for it yet. What disappointed me, which was something that I wanted to avoid throughout the show, was that because my celebrity relative is in a field without many other celebrities — like how many famous scientists can you name? Maybe like two or three at most, and only one of them is Black. So I was hoping that I wouldn't be immediately put into the "Oh, smart kid" box. "So he must be related to the one smart person I can think of who's famous." 

I was hoping that because in the talent show, a lot of people try to throw us off with their talents, but a lot of people also just embrace the talent and say, "Hey, what are you going to do with this information?" We had three contestants who were "Dad, Grammy, singer" for their "Two Truths and a Lie." I think only one of them actually ended up singing, but still, I was hoping I wouldn't be put into a box so quickly. Especially since no one took my clue from the Clue Room, and I didn't really hear about people — nobody warned me as well until Jane told me herself when she was the one who was also initiating a lot of that plotting against me. It was a shock, to say the least. Especially after coming in so hot at the very first challenge. To go from the highest high to the lowest low…

On finding out Jane was also working against him…

Tyson: I still don't know everything that's happened behind the scenes. There's also so much that you don't see that happens behind the scenes that doesn't get aired. Another thing that shocked me about everybody plotting against me is not just the fact that they wanted to eliminate me — because it's a show, whatever, that's what you're supposed to do — but also what they thought of me as a person was also a bit shocking. 

We all have this image of ourselves that we are trying to present to the world, and we hope that our understanding of ourselves is accurate in how we portray ourselves to others. But sometimes that can be misunderstood by other people and you might not know, and people might think you have certain intentions that you might not. And that's something I also realized when playing this game is that you have to be very deliberate about your every interaction, your word usage — how you say what you say matters a lot because everybody is constantly trying to read way deep into everybody else. Everybody's overthinking everything, and so you have to be very precise with your actions.

On whether the Clue Wall had items related to his celebrity relative…

Tyson: Yes, a couple, although nothing was so obvious that I was super worried about me getting found out. There was the astronaut there; there was like a vacuum tube as well — I don't know if that's been shown. So, yeah, I saw the clues, but I was pretty happy with the clues that were there. Nothing was too obvious, and when I heard people talking about the clues related to my dad, half the time they were trying to relate it to some other type of thing. Like [with the] astronaut, [they were saying], "Did Buzz Aldrin get a Nobel Prize?" I don't think so, but I'm glad the people in the house were thinking other things. 

On whether the talent-show performance is what gave him away…

Tyson: I think that had a big effect. Also, especially what Jane was cueing off of were my mannerisms and just like how I acted in general in everyday life. Because even before the talent show, people were saying I sounded smart sometimes. And I didn't want to be immediately, again, put into that box, although, of course, at the very beginning, all we have to base our opinions on are first impressions and stereotypes. 

So I think a lot of what gave me away were just my everyday mannerisms and the way I talked. I was constantly curious about things, always asking questions, always wanting to learn, always wanting to know more. And I think that sort of outlook on life, where you're constantly wanting to learn more about the stuff around you, I think Jane was able to clock that — she did it correctly. You know, she's a smart woman.

On whether he thinks Jane will win…

Tyson: I'm not sure. Because of how much everyone in the house at this point understands her — everyone respects her and so might be afraid to get on her bad side. But at the same time, because everyone knows how smart she is, [they might] consider her a threat at the same time. I think they would maybe work with her, but I was thinking that she would probably get pretty far but not win. I didn't think she would win because she would eventually get a big target on her back.

Honestly, it was so early in the show that I got eliminated that I don't have any guesses. Monay, I still have no idea who she is related to. Everyone else, I have some sort of preliminary guess.

On how his father, Neil deGrasse Tyson, reacted to him being on the show…

Tyson: He was excited that I found this new cool opportunity. Because I've never been on a reality-TV show. I was on TV once — I was on an episode of Celebrity Family Feud. But this is a whole different ball game. And I think he was just happy that I was able to experience something new, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, truly. And it'll be a story that I can tell for the rest of my life, about when I was on that reality show where we weren't able to use our phones and didn't know what time it was. And he was very supportive throughout the process. I'm sure he's not ecstatic that I got 11th, but what can you do? At least I was found out through being — I guess maybe for being too similar to him in my mannerisms, which is a little embarrassing, but at least I am able to carry the torch well enough.

Claim to Fame airs Mondays at 8/7c on ABC.