Rob Cesternino Looks Back at 25 Years of ‘Survivor’ Ahead of His Reality TV Return on ‘The Traitors’
If you consider yourself a diehard fan of reality television, then Rob Cesternino needs no introduction. For the less faithful, the “Survivor” all-star is making his long-awaited return to the competition format in Season 4 of “The Traitors” later this week on Peacock.
“This was so exciting for me. It was an opportunity that I wasn’t necessarily sure that was ever going to come my way, but it was such a dream come true to get the call to go participate in ‘The Traitors,’ so I’m absolutely thrilled,” Cesternino told TheWrap. “I love the format. I’ve got the podcast about it, but I’ve studied all of the international seasons of the show as well, so I think that we are just getting started on everything that ‘Traitors’ is going to be.”
After making the Final 3 of “Survivor: The Amazon” in 2003 and returning for “Survivor: All-Stars” a year later, Cesternino has built his own reality TV empire in the form of “Rob Has a Podcast” — his online community of podcasts, recaps and deep dives that cover similar shows such as “Big Brother,” “The Amazing Race” and much more.
“It’s great what we’re able to do with RHAP, where there are all of these people that are legends and icons of reality TV and we just have this sandbox where we can play with all of them. This favorite may not be getting an opportunity to be on the show, but we can do a million different things with them on the podcast,” Cesternino shared. “There’s a relationship that we have with the reality stars that we really fall in love with. We get really invested in these people, even if they played on a show 20 years ago, you still think of these people and they’re part of your lives.”
So how exactly does a longtime “Survivor” fan-favorite lower their threat level on a social strategy show like “The Traitors”?
“I think that in this world of reality TV competition fans, people might have a good idea of everything that we’ve built on “Rob Has a Podcast.” But my question is: Does the average ‘Real Housewife’ know what’s been going on for 15 years over there? I feel like there may be an opportunity for me to come in and maybe have a chance to give a different idea of myself than the average person who is obsessed might have,” the father of two explained. “I did talk with Boston Rob before I went and, really, there’s no better person you could talk to going into a reality competition … his advice to me was: ‘Hey, Cesternino, when you go out there, if I were you, don’t say anything, be quiet, just only talk in the confessional.’ That was his advice to me. I can’t say whether or not I followed it.”
In addition to “The Traitors,” Cesternino is also set to release his book “The Tribe and I Have Spoken” this May, offering a love letter to “Survivor” from one of the show’s most beloved, if not overlooked, castaways.
“I would say this is an unauthorized telling of ‘Survivor’ history from my vantage point of being a person who was a super fan, who was a contestant and then, ultimately, this historian of ‘Survivor’ for 25 years. I really wanted to tell the story of the history of the show. How do we go from where we were in the summer of 2000 in Borneo to where we are in the new era?” he teased. “I wanted to track that evolution, but also really chronicle some of the heroes and villains of the game. These players who dominated, I think of them as sort of like Greek Gods; they all have these great superpowers, some of them have weaknesses and there’s so much lore around that. So I thought that this would be a really fun thing to catalog as we celebrate 25 years of ‘Survivor.'”
“There were times when ‘Survivor’ did call about my availability and, most notably, there was a time after my younger son was born, where he was just a couple months old and the timing did not work out for me. Maybe there would have been a marriage between when ‘Survivor’ wanted me and it could have potentially worked out, but I’ve gotten to talk about and be a part of every season of ‘Survivor,'” Cesternino noted. “It would be great to one day play ‘Survivor’ again, but I’ve been on this other ride, which has also been very fun and I really do enjoy it every season.”
Season 50 of “Survivor” next month is being touted as In the Hands of the Fans, complete with 24 past contestants and fan-voted impact on the game. However, host Jeff Probst has also welcomed some new twists — including celebrity name-drops from MrBeast, Jimmy Fallon and Billie Eilish, as seen in the teaser.
“I understand what ‘Survivor’ is going for: ‘How do we make this into as big of a spectacle as possible and how do we raise awareness for what we’re doing?’ But I think it is a little bit of a dicey proposition, where you risk turning off the people who love this thing the most to try to bring in sort of like these looky-loos who might look at this because Jimmy Fallon mentioned it,” Cesternino said.
“Jeff has given me credit many times in the past. I think that from Jeff’s perspective, in terms of what I talk about on the podcast, I think that maybe in Jeff’s mind or in the mind of some of the producers, I am a little bit of the avatar for the cranky, complaining reality TV fan on the internet. But what the reality is is that for shows like ‘Survivor,’ I am, in many ways, the customer service department,” he continued. “When someone sees something on ‘Survivor’ that they don’t like, they can’t call up Jeff to voice, ‘Hey, here’s something that I don’t like.’ Then there’s me who’s out there 365 days of the year having conversations with people around the shows. I think that, ultimately, what I do is a positive for these reality shows. We may complain, but we love this thing and we want it to be as good as possibly can be.”
And speaking of, “The Traitors” is the reigning Emmy winner for Outstanding Reality Competition Program, having won for both Seasons 2 and 3. So who was Cesternino shocked to see alongside him in the Highlands castle?
“I was surprised to see Michael Rapaport in the cast because I think that he is a very polarizing figure, but people have long said we need big personalities on reality TV,” the podcaster admitted. “I love the study of people and that’s what reality TV is. You’re gonna see such eccentric personalities in this cast.”
“I really enjoyed coming back and being a part of a competition reality show, so I hope that there are more opportunities to do things,” Cesternino concluded. “I don’t know what is next that’s out there. So I don’t know, maybe it’ll be something new. I’m open.”
“The Traitors” Season 4 premieres Thursday on Peacock.
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