‘The Traitors’ Season 3 Exit Interview: “Boston” Rob Mariano
“Boston” Rob Mariano has been on Survivor, Deal or No Deal Island, and The Amazing Race, but when it comes to difficult reality competition shows, those shows have nothing on The Traitors.
Sitting down with Decider to chat about his role as a Traitor in Season 3 of Peacock‘s hit reality program, the Survivor legend opened up about the struggles he faced in the game of mischief, mayhem, and deceit.
**Spoilers ahead for the first seven episodes of The Traitors Season 3**
According to Mariano, his “brain was in a blender” attempting to play a Traitor, execute the challenges of the game, and manage all of the other players and their expectations of him. It makes for one hell of a game.
“The most difficult, yeah, it’s not even close,” Mariano said, responding to a question about where the show falls in his difficulty ranking. “There’s 20 people on Survivor. But in The Traitors, there’s 23 people altogether. On Survivor, at least you have two tribes of ten. You have to manage nine other people over there. Here, you have to manage everyone. And in my case, literally everyone, even the other Traitors. So I got to manage 22 people and there’s not enough time. It is just like my brain was in a blender.”
In this particular season, Mariano also had the unique disadvantage of coming in as a player that no one wanted in the game. More than any time he shows up in another game, that is.
At the start of Episode 1, host Alan Cumming gave the other competitors the option to bring Mariano into the castle to play and the entire group refused to step forward. He ultimately wound up entering in Episode 2 alongside Big Brother alum Derrick Levasseur and The Challenge fan favorite Wes Bergmann, much to the chagrin of the other players.
Even after finding a home in the castle as one of the season’s four Traitors with Danielle Reyes, Bob the Drag Queen, and Carolyn Wiger, he still faced an uphill battle. Reyes had it out for him from the jump and even more so after Mariano threw Bob the Drag Queen under the bus, teaming up with Dylan Efron to banish the RuPaul’s Drag Race alum. Given that he was fundamentally set on killing off Faithfuls and that he didn’t exactly mesh with his fellow Traitors, it would be no surprise if he said he couldn’t care less who wins Season 3. That is not the case, however. There are a few players he says he would love to see take home the $250,000.
So, who is he rooting for and why? How did he feel about his fellow Survivor alum Tony Vlachos calling him “a sellout” in one of the first episodes of the season? And, most importantly, is his bromance with Dylan still alive and strong after his banishment? To find the answers to these questions, keep reading for Decider’s full interview with Mariano…
DECIDER: It was so disappointing for so many fans to see you go home. But you really danced quite well in those two episodes beforehand and avoided going home. What was your reaction to finally getting sent packing and when did you really know that the jig was up?
ROB MARIANO: It’s always tough, but I felt like I was up against it from the jump. I was fighting for my life since the first day I was there. I knew not until the votes were read. I really thought I had a shot before the votes came out. When I saw Chrishell [Stause] vote for Tom [Sandoval] and then I saw Dylan vote for Gabby [Windey] to kind of throw away votes, I knew at that point. Also, it wasn’t really shown, but I made a pretty good case against Britney [Haynes] but she had a good defense. I did make a good case and it felt like it was going in that direction. But Carolyn kind of steered the conversation back to me. She said something like, “Why isn’t anybody listening to Tom?” And I was like, “No, what are you doing?” So that was kind of the little preamble to seeing the vote.
And seeing that your fellow Traitor betrayed you in that moment, but also seeing that so many heavy hitters like Wes and Derrick went home in the last couple of episodes, is there someone who is still currently in the game that deserves to win the money?
Deserves is a crazy word. When you talk about these kinds of shows, I kind of feel like the people that get to the end, they’re the winners. And I’ve always maintained that through the years. I can tell you, personally, I’m rooting for Dylan. He was a good friend in the game and we became friends after. And surprisingly, even though we never got on the same page and worked together, I’m rooting for Carolyn. I feel like both of them have attributes that would make good winners, for sure.
Speaking of Dylan, I was going to ask you if the bromance is alive and well, but I think we’ve all seen the “Gotta Go My Own Way” TikTok. Please tell me how that came about.
We were in Vegas playing golf and we had drinks and we’re like, “You know what would be funny? Let’s make this video.” And we did. And what’s amazing is we kept it a secret for the last six, eight weeks and cut it together and it was awesome. And we made the first cut with that first song. And then he was like, “Oh my god, we should use the High School Musical song. So we rereleased it. He’s a good dude, man. We had a lot of fun out there. And, you know, we text and call pretty much daily every couple of days But while I was out there, I really did feel alone. I felt like everybody was coming at me. And Chrishell and Nikki [Garcia] were so great to me. They were so nice […] And Ciara [Miller] was really nice to me also. It meant a lot because, you know, like, I don’t really think to make friends.
And you did such a great job talking Ciara through that last challenge. I do want to ask though: recently, there was a video going around on social media about how you guys don’t stay in the castle. And people are shocked by this. I’m wondering, are there any other little tidbits behind-the-scenes details that you think would shock the fans?
I think the biggest thing is they don’t realize how long the days are. We literally have call times that sometimes 7 or 8 a.m. and it will go — if you’re a Traitor — sometimes till 3 or 4 in the morning. So, I mean, you’re sleeping like four hours a night. We’re so far north in the Highlands of Scotland. Not the Arctic Circle, but so far north and in the middle of summer, it’s light out like 21 hours a day or more. So it only gets dark from like 2 to 4 a.m. and you have to shoot the turret scenes when it’s dark. So even though the rest of the cast is done at midnight, you’re there till sometimes 3 or 4. With us, with Danielle and Carolyn, we were there all night sometimes. And then we’d get up and go and do it again. And it’s brutal. I mean, every day you just do it and make it happen.
People definitely watch the show and think, they’re just in this castle and they’re just having fun. And there’s these spreads set out for them every morning. But that call time schedule is brutal, and it does make me wonder, where do you place The Traitors on the list of difficulty of reality competition shows that you’ve been on now?
The most difficult. Yeah, it’s not even close. And I’ll tell you why. There are two reasons why. Number one is the sheer number of people that are there. There’s 20 people on Survivor. But in The Traitors, there’s 23 people altogether. On Survivor, at least you have two tribes of ten. You have to manage nine other people over there. Here, you have to manage everyone. And in my case, literally everyone, even the other Traitors. So I got to manage 22 people and there’s not enough time. It is just like my brain was in a blender. A lot of the show and so many of the other contestants are still good at playing these games. Bob the Drag Queen was really impressive. Wes and Derrick are killers. Bob H was super intuitive, Carolyn — it’s not easy to pull a fast one because there are a lot of people thinking on, you know, that next level. So it makes it a very difficult show. Definitely the hardest.
Tony was a great player, too. He went home pretty quickly. Have you guys spoken since he called you a sellout?
No, I’ve never talked to Tony in my life. I might have talked to Tony maybe twice in my life since the last Survivor, Tony was dead before I got there. That’s a fact. They had already decided. And truthfully, like, I gave Tony that shield to protect him, but also because I know Tony’s a good enough player that he knows that if he’s not a Traitor, that I must be. So I wanted to make him feel safe. And it was never really my intention to pile on him the way I did. But I was kind of in an impossible situation. Bob H pressed me to ask me what did I think? And at that point, like, I can’t really go after the other Traitors, right? Bob the Drag Queen was the only other person getting heat. I’m not going to go at somebody randomly and create an enemy for no reason. So I just kind of jumped on it. But he was dead before. It didn’t matter. And the idea that what I said made people’s minds up in that situation, I’m not buying it.
I’m going to wrap with one more thing since it’s the big one everybody’s talking about this season. Can you please give me your best impression of Carolyn?
No, I’m not doing that. Are you kidding me? Somebody showed me a TikTok. This guy and this girl, and it was so good. It was me and her. It was so good. Look on my Instagram somewhere. Yeah, mo, no, thank you. I like Carolyn. I do. I hope she wins. Or Dylan.
The first seven episodes of The Traitors Season 3 are currently streaming on Peacock. New episodes release on Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET.
