Janelle Reveals Technical Issues With the All Stars 2 Final May Have Cost Her the Game

Janelle recently went on Instagram and made a post revealing that something sketchy happened during the All Stars 2 final. Her safe wouldn’t open, and it wasn’t the math.

Apparently, she wasn’t the only one with issues. The Entertainment Weekly interview she references has an explanation from Jonna and MJ. This is their sequence of events.

1. MJ & Jonna get to the safes first, though the edit shows Darrell & Janelle in first place.
2. Production confirms MJ & Jonna have the right numbers, tells them to run to the jet where they’d be crowned winners.
3. Halfway through this run, production tells MJ & Jonna there weren’t entering the code correctly, so they need to return to the safe. Because this was production’s blunder, they get a ride back.
4. At this point, all three teams are at the safe. All of them are struggling, but MJ & Jonna are able to open their safe because they have the “fourth step.”
5. MJ & Jonna win.

Janelle has been vague about what actually happened. From the sounds of it, MJ & Jonna might have been trying to open the safe incorrectly, but production told them they were correct. Then, production realized they gave MJ & Jonna a false green-light to proceed. If everyone had all the rules to open the safe and they were accurate, MJ & Jonna might have been stumped, and Janelle & Darrell could have made up time and won.

But, the equipment wasn’t working. At one point in time, it seems like the rules were inaccurate for all teams.

Janelle has talked more about her frustrations on Instagram (archived here), and she’s right to be frustrated. They were solving a code, opening a safe, and the equipment failed. She had an opportunity to make up ground and it was taken away.

However, all three teams were impacted. It sounds like production chose not to count the safe-opening portion of the final. They realized they’d given all 3 teams the wrong rules, but they didn’t want to mess up their shot. So they sent back MJ & Jonna and edited the footage to tell a story, including the winners loading a bag with money.

It’s a dumb mistake, and Janelle is correct to be upset. It kind of renders all of phase 2 useless. Maybe Nehemiah & Melinda should be the winners, they won Phase 1.