Actress Ariel Winter became the second cast member in as many weeks to leave Fox’s Stars on Mars of her own accord Monday and is now the seventh celebrity overall to voluntarily leave the reality show this season.
The show features 12 varied personalities living together in an environment meant to simulate life on the planet Mars. Each episode, they are given a challenge that they must tackle in teams, and by the show's end, the person deemed least “mission-critical” is sent home.
Winter’s exit Monday comes on the heels of Lance Armstrong leaving after the former competitive bicyclist dropped out last week when he was at risk of being sent home. This time around, Winter had a feeling that a target was on her back heading into the next mission and was hoping to become Base Commander to help keep herself safe.
However that honor went to former NBA great Paul Pierce, and Winter had to head out as part of a mission to rescue the robotic dog known as the Rad Puppy somewhere in a cave on “Mars.”
And while the group ultimately succeeded in their mission, Winter had a few stumbles along the way and found herself in the bottom three and at risk of being deemed “not mission critical” and being sent home, along with former NFL running back Marshawn Lynch,and Real Housewives of Atlanta star Porsha Williams.
But instead of making the case for herself to stay on the show, Winter had other plans in mind when it was her turn to speak.
"I came here, I didn't think I was going to make it past mission one. I've overcome a lot of things. I never thought I would rappel down a cliff. Absolutely not. But I loved being on this team. I even enjoyed missions, even hard ones, in a stupid-ass suit,” Winter said. “But as you know, I love the word fair. I was not mission critical today and I feel like I deserve to go."
And with that, Base Commander Pierce confirmed her decision and let her go, while inviting Lynch and Williams back to be with the rest of the group.
The move seemed to come as a surprise to some of the cast members, including Winter who was “more sad” than she thought she would be as she said her goodbyes. Meanwhile, a “shocked” Olympian Adam Rippon sang her praises.
"I get where Ariel is coming from. In this mission, she fell short. In my eyes, she's one of the most mission critical people of this entire experiment,” Rippon said.
Winter later expanded on her decision to leave in a confessional interview.
"I got a lot of great things out of this, a lot of great friendships, personal growth, and a little bit more confidence," Winter said. "I'm very happy I did this even though it was like a little bit of hell. [It's] very hard for me to open up that real and vulnerable space. And now I feel like I'm open and ready for anything. I definitely feel at peace. I'm good to go."
Along with Armstrong and Winter, the other stars who have voluntarily left Stars on Mars include actor Christopher Mintz-Plasse in the first episode, former NFL star Richard Sherman in episode 3, comedian Natasha Leggero in episode 4 and UFC fighter Ronda Rousey in episode 7.
And at some point the question may become, why do people keep quitting instead of staying to win?
Stars on Mars airs Mondays at 8 p.m. on Fox.
