Why was Allen Pan fired from MythBusters?

Allen Pan was eliminated from the MythBusters: The Search spin-off show because his plan for building a spy-car weapon failed

MythBusters: The Search is a spin-off series based on the original MythBusters show, with an all-new group of contestants.

Allen Pan was a fan-favourite contestant on the first season of the show who already had some hosting experience. However, Allen was eliminated just before the finale when his team failed to build an adequate spy-car weapon using his plan.

What is MythBusters: The Search all about?

Many fans of the original MythBusters series were devastated when the hosts at the time, Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman, confirmed that the fourteenth season of the show would be the last

Fortunately, the spin-off, MythBusters: The Search, officially started airing on the Science Channel on 7 January 2017.

The format of the show pits 10 contestants against each other in various team and individual tasks, in which they have to prove or bust various myths in order to crown the eventual winner as the new host of the MythBusters reboot.

The show received mixed reviews and many viewers felt like it leaned too heavily on the original show, even though it was, in itself, entertaining enough to watch.

Why was Allen Pan fired from MythBusters?

The semi-final episode of the first and only season of MythBusters: The Search, titled “Return of the Spy Car” first aired on 18 February 2017.

Allen Pan was one of the five remaining contestants that made it to this episode, where they were all tasked with two myths to prove or disprove.

The individual myth for this week tested the notion that the contestants could minimise their fear response by singing, and Allen failed dismally.

The team myth in this episode saw the members of the blue team and the red team competing to test the myth that you can develop non-lethal weapons for a spy-car that will allow the spy to obscure the bad guy’s vision and keep him from escaping the scene of a crime.

All of the red team’s efforts in this challenge failed miserably and their spy car ended up looking worse than the bad guy’s car did.

As a result of this and based on the fact that no MVP award was given in this challenge, Allen was ultimately eliminated from the competition at the end of this episode.

Furthermore, he was also effectively fired from the show, considering that he was the driving force behind the red team’s idea to use party supplies as a weapon during the challenge.

Who is Allen Pan?

Allan Pan had a loyal following of fans on his YouTube channel even before he joined the MythBusters: The Search cast.

The Allen Pan YouTube channel had already been established in 2015 and by the time that MythBusters: The Search began, Pan had already become quite popular through a series on his channel titled “Sufficiently Advanced”.

This popular science videos series had a similar format to MythBusters, and it followed Allan as he reverse-engineered gadgets and weapons that come from notable movies and shows in popular culture.

Allen announced that he was going to be one of the contestants on the first season of the show in a YouTube video which he posted in November of 2016.

Many of his fans felt like he would be an excellent choice because he already had hosting experience and he had the technical skills of an engineer to empirically test the myths on the show.

How did fans of the show react to Allen’s elimination?

Although Allen was one of the fan-favourites to win the first season of MythBusters: The Search, in classic reality television competition-fashion, being a popular with fans of the show did not secure his place as a winner.

Even though Allen’s eventual elimination from the show was reasonably justified, as he had not won many MVP awards or challenges leading up to the finale, fans were upset that he did not end up winning regardless.

Fans took to the MythBusters: The Search social media pages to air their grievances, and one fan even created a Change.org petition to contest the fact that Allen did not end up winning, however, this petition was poorly supported and was eventually closed.

Who won MythBusters: The Search if Allen was eliminated?

Even though Allen did not end up making it to the finale of the show, Tamara Robertson, Martin Pepper, Brian Louden, and Jon Lung did.

In the end, Brian and Jon’s performance in the final two challenges in the finale episode secured them the victory, and they were crowned as the winners of MythBusters: The Search.