Stars on Mars eliminations: See every celebrity ejected from space and the season's winner

Fox's latest entry into celebrity reality competitions, Stars on Mars, saw a group of famousish faces sent on a simulated mission to Mars to see who could survive longest on the Red Planet (in reality, they were in a remote town in Southern Australia). The contestants competing to be named "the Brightest Star in the Galaxy" included disgraced former pro cyclist Lance Armstrong, comedian Natasha Leggero, Super Bowl champ Marshawn Lynch, Superbad star Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Olympic figure skater Adam Rippon, wrestler and UFC fighter Ronda Rousey, Vanderpump Rules star Tom Schwartz, football player Richard Sherman, singer/songwriter Tinashe, Real Housewives of Atlanta star Porsha Williams, actress Tallulah Willis, and Modern Family actress Ariel Winter. Plus, four new celebrities joined on episode 5: actor-comedian Andy Richter, The Bachelor alum Ashley Iaconetti, NBA legend Paul Pierce, and celebrity chef Cat Cora.

Along the way, the celebronauts took their orders from Star Trek icon William Shatner — or "Shatty Daddy" as the group took to calling him — with one contestant ultimately voted as "not mission critical" at the end of each episode, meaning their faux space voyage was done.

Below, we track which celebrity won and why the others were eliminated each week.

Adam Rippon

Known for: Olympic figure skater, Dancing With the Stars season 26 winner
Wins: Episode 12 finale on Aug. 28, 2023
Mission Critical: Rippon completes a three-phase mission to assemble a satellite and broadcast a message to Earth, winning the Brightest Star in the Galaxy patch.

Tinashe

Known for: "2 On" singer and Mimi in Rent: Live
Eliminated: Episode 12 finale on Aug. 28, 2023
Not Mission Critical: In the final mission, Rippon is able to assemble a satellite and transmit a message to Earth just faster than Tinashe, leaving her as runner-up.

Porsha Williams

Known for: Real Housewives of Atlanta
Eliminated: Episode 12 finale on Aug. 28, 2023
Not Mission Critical: Rippon and Tinashe answer five correct trivia questions faster than Williams, so she is automatically eliminated in the finale after playing a great game all season.

Cat Cora

Known for: Iron Chef
Eliminated: Episode 12 finale on Aug. 28, 2023
Not Mission Critical: At the start of the season finale, the final five rank each other on who's most mission critical and Cora is in the bottom two, meaning automatic elimination.

Paul Pierce

Known for: NBA star and fired ESPN contributor
Eliminated: Episode 12 finale on Aug. 28, 2023
Not Mission Critical: Like Cora, Pierce is in the bottom two and automatically eliminated when the final five rank each other on most mission critical at the start of the finale.

Marshawn Lynch

Known for: Super Bowl champ
Eliminated: Episode 11 on Aug. 21, 2023
Not Mission Critical: Players split into two teams for a rescue mission that involved retrieving host William Shatner himself. Lynch's team lost and he landed in the bottom with Williams, but the latter was chosen by the remaining players as more mission critical.

Ariel Winter

Known for: Alex Dunphy on Modern Family
Eliminated: Episode 10 on Aug. 14, 2023
Not Mission Critical: Winter quit the show when she landed in the bottom three after a successful mission to rescue a robot dog that fell down a hole. Instead of pleading her case for why she should stay over Lynch or Williams, the actress declared, "I was not mission critical today and I feel like I deserve to go."

Lance Armstrong

Known for: Disgraced former pro cyclist (who has never walked on the moon)
Eliminated: Episode 9 on Aug. 7, 2023
Not Mission Critical: Armstrong was paired with Winter to help find and extract an intruder. The frequently feuding duo put their differences aside to crawl through an air vent together, but both landed in the bottom three with Pierce. Before the group voted on who to eliminate, Armstrong quit the competition, blaming his struggle to get along with many of his fellow competitors.

Andy Richter

Known for: Comedian and longtime sidekick for Conan O'Brien
Eliminated: Episode 8 on July 31, 2023
Not Mission Critical: Technically Richter was voted out for not paying close enough attention to instructions from Cora, the week's base commander, during a mission that saw the contestants navigate their way back to the airlock room without being able to see. However, his elimination seemed a bit personal after Richter chose the celebrity chef to be in the bottom last week, which brought her to tears.

Ronda Rousey

Known for: Wrestler and UFC fighter
Eliminated: Episode 7 on July 24, 2023
Not Mission Critical: AI went haywire and trapped some crew members while others had to reset the software by doing such tasks as riding a bike or playing a song on a keyboard (don't ask us how that helped!). Rousey pulled her weight in a physical mission as always, but was put in the bottom just to give her the option to decide to return home after mentioning previously how much she missed her 18-month-old daughter. "Earth is calling," she said, choosing to sacrifice herself to save Pierce and Cora and go back to her child.

Ashley Iaconetti

Known for: Multiple iterations of The Bachelor franchise
Eliminated: Episode 6 on July 17, 2023
Not Mission Critical: During an endurance mission in which the celebronauts had to use their bodies to plug tears in their shelter created by a meteorite shower while oxygen leaked out, Iaconetti chose the lowest hole to stick one finger in so she could lay back the entire time, a much easier task than others faced.

Natasha Leggero

Known for: Comedian, co-creator and star of Another Period
Eliminated: Episode 4 on June 26, 2023 (double elimination)
Not Mission Critical: After admittedly getting through most of the competition without helping all that much, Leggero landed in the bottom three once again and made the decision easy for the group when instead of pleading her case to stay, she literally pleaded to leave. "Please, please, please let me leave Mars," she begged the group, joking, "To be honest, I've already called my Uber."

Tom Schwartz

Known for: Covering for his best friend's affair (a.k.a. Scandoval) on Vanderpump Rules
Eliminated: Episode 4 on June 26, 2023 (double elimination)
Not Mission Critical: Thanks to Leggero practically self-eliminating, Schwartz likely would have been spared if this were not a double-elimination episode, but after landing in the bottom multiple times, the reality star didn't stand a chance in a team vote against Rippon, who has proven both useful and popular on Mars.

Richard Sherman

Known for: Super Bowl champ
Eliminated: Episode 3 on June 19, 2023
Not Mission Critical: After admitting to experiencing a bit of "space madness" due to isolation, Sherman's heart was noticeably not in a repair mission that required him to simply hold up a ladder. Instead of convincing the rest of the crew why he should stay, he argued that his fellow bottom performers, Leggero and Lynch, were better suited for Mars, essentially resigning.

Tallulah Willis

Known for: Actress and daughter of Bruce Willis and Demi Moore
Eliminated: Episode 2 on June 12, 2023
Not Mission Critical: As the appointed base commander for the second team mission, which involved repelling down a cliff to collect water, she led her team to failure by allowing Schwartz and Winter to swap duties despite being better suited for their initial posts.

Christopher Mintz-Plasse

Known for: McLovin in Superbad
Eliminated: Episode 1 on June 5, 2023
Not Mission Critical: Mintz-Plasse admittedly did nothing to assist in the group's first chaotic challenge of fixing a fallen comms tower in a short window of time while getting covered in dust, and was deemed even less essential than Rippon, who argued he should only be saved because he's "the hottest."

Stars on Mars airs Mondays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Fox.

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Related content:

• Stars on Mars winner reveals what you didn't see on the season 1 finale — and why they almost threw the mission
• Stars on Mars contestants blast disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong for wanting to separate trans athletes
• Ariel Winter thinks her Stars on Mars competitor Lance Armstrong is late astronaut Neil Armstrong: 'Google him!'