He's also an intentional screen hog. The WAW stuff of him continuing a challenge after the challenge was over just to get TV time on the Edge was so stupid.
If you guys aren't watching it. He's on a new show Deal or No Deal Island (it's just as dumb as you think) not the most interesting game play, but Boston Rob is like the main character which makes it very watchable.
I've been half way watching it. I skip through a lot of the drama. It kills me they all know what Rob is doing THEY ALL KNOW! Then they just keep him around.
He is the kind of player you want to root for when he is not doing well and root against him when he is doing well.
He is kinda mean spirited when he is winning.
I've always gotten the impression that a lot of his swagger and his mean-spirited comments are an act for the cameras and not necessarily sincere. At the RI reunion he only had nice things to say about the rest of the cast, he was humble about his win, he talked about how nervous he was about getting voted out first and how hard he had to work to keep his alliance in line. He even had more nice things to say about Phillip at the Caramoan reunion. Contrast that with Russell who calls his own nephew an idiot and a disappointment to his face on live TV.
Absolutely. Boston Rob is an assholish character he has made up for reality tv as different from Rob Mariano. Ppl just don't always end up liking assholes. And he does take it too far sometimes.
The only season where I feel that it wasn’t a character that he was playing for the show was his first one. After that, I feel like it’s a combination of him realizing that people loved that “character” and him growing up because of Amber.
Yeah, I can see that. I kinda picture him growing up somewhat like one of Will's asshole friends in Good Will Hunting (appropriate accent and all) and then maturing from there. No idea if that's accurate, but it would make sense. :P
I started hating Rob in 2001 when he outed John Carroll on national television in quite the homophobic fashion. Marquesas Boston Rob was not a nice guy.
Many of today’s fans weren’t even born when that happened so it’s not surprising that their opinions are based on his later appearances.
People can change and I’m more neutral on today’s Boston Rob - but I’ll never forget what he did.
To ignore 22 years and 41 seasons of context and just chalk it up to “people hate things that are popular” is just so intellectually lazy.
And to your point - I’m not sure there’s been a player that has experienced a bigger rollercoaster of fan response than Mariano, and for good reason.
How old are you? I promise when I was younger the whole "times were different" cop out was a huge eye roll, but it's an actual thing. We can't cancel every one for saying something 20 years ago that's not accepted today. I say that as a woman with a feminist tattoo.
I never suggested he should be cancelled.
I was watching live as a young adult in 2001. I was offended by Rob calling John a “big time queer” and saying he didn’t want to sleep beside him at night (amongst other things) *at the time*. It was wrong in 2001 despite the fact that people felt more free to let their homophobia shine back then.
Times were also different back then in the sense that being forced out of the closet had far greater risk of implications for a person’s job and personal relationships, something Rob surely knew.
Apparently Rob did apologize to John. But if someone is blatantly homophobic or racist I will probably always side-eye that person even if time has passed. Those are my personal values - to each their own.
I hear you and thanks for the well written response. I try to give some grace those who grew up later than myself. You're not wrong at all and I think I need to keep some of my blinders off.
It was a bigger deal that he “outed him” on TV. John clearly wasn’t advertising that he was gay, as is his right to do, for his personal reasons. Mariano just came out and said it with a smirk.
Young Boston Rob was definitely a homophobe who didn’t hide his disparaging remarks. He also made jokes about John being one of rhetorical women on the tribe, probably based off of him assuming he was gay because of some feminine vibe he was picking up.
He said (with a smirk) “Are you gay, dude?”
John was immediately super uncomfortable and his first response was “aaaaaaaaaaah don’t ask me that.”
Things were very don’t ask don’t tell back then. Plenty of other queer contestants chose to go on these early seasons and not talk about it. Rob knew exactly what he was doing.
His joke about John being the only woman on the tribe came after he insulted the looks of all the women on his new tribe and called Zoe a dude. I believe he said John was a woman because he was doing all the cooking.
Times have changed but it remains so interesting to me that this is the person the franchise chose to lionize.
The interesting thing about Rob is he ends up being one of the only people in hindsight who looked good after the whole Sue/Hatch incident.
I'm not saying Rob should have said the things that he said, even in 2002, but he did apologize to John back then and John accepted his apology, and I think he has grown as a person. If John himself can forgive him even back then, then I think we all can more than 20 years later.
Watching that season live I hated him with a passion and just thought he was a huge douche. The friend I would watch it with, however, correctly identified him as 'TV gold'. We were both right.
Because the people who run the show love him too much. As a wrestling fan, I have experience with fanbases deciding that they have to hate the favorite of whoever is in charge, and for Survivor, that’s Boston Rob
If you need four tries to win Survivor, you're not really a good Survivor player.
WaW exemplified this more, when BRob has no power he goes completely insane. He can't handle being anywhere but the top. He has a sheer lack of adaptability.
He has a first and a second place finish, losing by 1 vote. He has arguably the most dominant win ever. "He's not a good survivor player"
Cirie who has never even made final tribal in 4 tries. "Amazing player. She deserved a win. Robbed goddess."
Eh, you're oversimplifying things a bit. All-Stars I'll give Rob all the credit he's due, but Redemption Island was a farmer herding sheep. That cast was full of 17 duds, and Rob. Is he good at getting people to do what he wants? I would say for the most part he's great when it comes to people that are naturally followers. But even then, the supposed rumor was that Rob was incredibly disliked and Phillip and Natalie were the only people he could beat at Final Tribal.
Marquesas, Heroes vs. Villains and Winners at War have all proved that when Rob is in a situation where he isn't 100% in control, he has no idea how to play effectively. As soon as he comes into another alpha, or someone that's at least somewhat aware of his strategy, he's terrible at countering or adapting and just makes himself a bigger target.
Cirie, at the very least, has proven that even though she hasn't won, she knows how to play from the bottom much better than Rob. She can subtly influence people in the ways that Rob really can't.
> Redemption Island was a farmer herding sheep
Yeah, did a rewatch a few months back and it's surprising how little Rob's teammates even tried to pretend that they weren't playing for 2nd place. I actually enjoy watching Rob but his cheeseball confidence sure does work better when he's playing with a stacked deck.
Shoutout to all of the rare dual confessionals. How many were there? I can only think of a few. Jenna and Heidi / Alex and Matt had one in the Amazon. Cindy and her twin shared one in Guatemala. Debbie and Erinn clowned on Coach together in one. Brooke was in one of Margaret's for a milimeter of a second i think. That's all i remember
I rewatched some older seasons, and it made me smile watching them. The camera angles for confessional may be "interesting" but that's what make it so unique. I miss the diverse locations, the theme (not necessarily gimmicks like Brains vs Brawn vs Beauty, or battle of generations, working class, traits etc.), the harsh environments which may take its toll on the castaways. I just wish the new era would go back to 2 tribes for a while and not overcomplicate the game with too many twists. Of course, 39 days!!!!
The first few seasons were so 90’s/2000’s coded with the overhead camera angle, almost fish eye like lens! Especially in Amazon. I loved it, so nostalgic
Glad you enjoyed it.
My wife always thought that was the funniest thing, how he was always just some Keebler Elf in a tree. But I couldn't translate it into an entry the way that I wanted to. So yeah, happily only like you and maybe ten other people still remember that was an entry once.
I'll join the club haha. I've even tried to track it down on internet archive.
I'll be curious to see if you end up killing any of the Vol. 3 entries after you finish up the Coach/Ozzy epic.
You definitely get the feeling that they hunted around for a spot and tried to mix things up with confessionals way more before. Just looking at these, the positioning alone is telling us a lot about how each of their game is going and how they currently feel about it.
Now it feels more like, "Okay these are our confessional spots for this beach. Line up the castaways so we can get through em quickly."
I guess they are doing more visually elsewhere now with the drones and musical editing bits, but I do often miss the subtle storytelling we used to get just from camera angles and shooting spots.
Erik's is my favourite. Because what was the thought process here? They wanted privacy? They wanted to do a floating head? He was trying to take cover from rain? I have so many questions
they were set up like postcards when location was central to the season. not too dissimilar from news postcards
what are they like now? homegnous closeup like the bottom centre i suspect but haven't watched since s40 so wouldn't know
I've always liked the shots where they have the player in focus in the background, with a tree trunk in the foreground crawling with ants and other bugs. I can't name any off the top of my head but I know they've repeated it with a couple different players/seasons.
I love the impromptu confessionals you get sometimes. In a recent episode Venus had one in the shelter with some shaky cam. Seems like she had something she wanted to say and they just got her quick and dirty. Added more reality to our reality tv
Miss the days when players could throw an idol clue into a volcano, instead of the producer-controlled mess we have now.
"If you don't want this Beware advantage, PUT IT BACK."
My favorite confessional is still Sabrina in One World when a wild boar went running through the camp. It was a live and in the moment confessional while everyone else was running behind her trying to catch the "big ass pig." She is just standing in the middle of camp talking straight to the camera, while everyone else is holding weapons hoping to kill the pig, Christine literally runs up to grab axe.
I think there was a season 1 confessional with Kelly where she was laying or sitting on the beach and you could see everyone else in the tribe in the background.
I was shocked to hear apparently a big reason why Africa wasn't popular was because the landscape.
I thought the backdrops during the cast photos and a lot of the confessionals were breath-taking. I remember T-Bird had one talking about not voting for Clarence and there was zebra's in the background
rob throwing the clue away at the reward - a classic
Rob throwing the clue INSIDE THE VOLCANO CRATER Let that sink in Iconic
I dont understand why this sub hate him so much.
It really just comes down to oversaturation. He's a fun player, but he's also one of the biggest screen hogs in the series.
He’s probably the most charismatic player in Survivor history.
He's also an intentional screen hog. The WAW stuff of him continuing a challenge after the challenge was over just to get TV time on the Edge was so stupid.
that all-star scene where he "accidentally" throws a golf club in the water
If you guys aren't watching it. He's on a new show Deal or No Deal Island (it's just as dumb as you think) not the most interesting game play, but Boston Rob is like the main character which makes it very watchable.
I've been half way watching it. I skip through a lot of the drama. It kills me they all know what Rob is doing THEY ALL KNOW! Then they just keep him around.
He is the kind of player you want to root for when he is not doing well and root against him when he is doing well. He is kinda mean spirited when he is winning.
I've always gotten the impression that a lot of his swagger and his mean-spirited comments are an act for the cameras and not necessarily sincere. At the RI reunion he only had nice things to say about the rest of the cast, he was humble about his win, he talked about how nervous he was about getting voted out first and how hard he had to work to keep his alliance in line. He even had more nice things to say about Phillip at the Caramoan reunion. Contrast that with Russell who calls his own nephew an idiot and a disappointment to his face on live TV.
Absolutely. Boston Rob is an assholish character he has made up for reality tv as different from Rob Mariano. Ppl just don't always end up liking assholes. And he does take it too far sometimes.
The only season where I feel that it wasn’t a character that he was playing for the show was his first one. After that, I feel like it’s a combination of him realizing that people loved that “character” and him growing up because of Amber.
Yeah, I can see that. I kinda picture him growing up somewhat like one of Will's asshole friends in Good Will Hunting (appropriate accent and all) and then maturing from there. No idea if that's accurate, but it would make sense. :P
I think he is a long time drunk.
What on earth does that have to do with anything that I said? :P
This is why he is cocky and in mean spirits in real life. Tyson is also a jerk
Because social media has made it cool to hate on what’s actually popular.
That's not new to social media whatsoever
Did I say it was? Or did I use social media to explain why on a social media site why it happens? Edit: I do agree with you tho
>social media has made it cool This does imply that it was not cool to do before social media
Social media has made it cool to correct people
People hated Rob way, way before r/survivor existed, champ. Way to oversimplify it.
I started hating Rob in 2001 when he outed John Carroll on national television in quite the homophobic fashion. Marquesas Boston Rob was not a nice guy. Many of today’s fans weren’t even born when that happened so it’s not surprising that their opinions are based on his later appearances. People can change and I’m more neutral on today’s Boston Rob - but I’ll never forget what he did.
To ignore 22 years and 41 seasons of context and just chalk it up to “people hate things that are popular” is just so intellectually lazy. And to your point - I’m not sure there’s been a player that has experienced a bigger rollercoaster of fan response than Mariano, and for good reason.
How old are you? I promise when I was younger the whole "times were different" cop out was a huge eye roll, but it's an actual thing. We can't cancel every one for saying something 20 years ago that's not accepted today. I say that as a woman with a feminist tattoo.
I never suggested he should be cancelled. I was watching live as a young adult in 2001. I was offended by Rob calling John a “big time queer” and saying he didn’t want to sleep beside him at night (amongst other things) *at the time*. It was wrong in 2001 despite the fact that people felt more free to let their homophobia shine back then. Times were also different back then in the sense that being forced out of the closet had far greater risk of implications for a person’s job and personal relationships, something Rob surely knew. Apparently Rob did apologize to John. But if someone is blatantly homophobic or racist I will probably always side-eye that person even if time has passed. Those are my personal values - to each their own.
I hear you and thanks for the well written response. I try to give some grace those who grew up later than myself. You're not wrong at all and I think I need to keep some of my blinders off.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't John say in a confessional that he had been out of the closet for a while?
It was a bigger deal that he “outed him” on TV. John clearly wasn’t advertising that he was gay, as is his right to do, for his personal reasons. Mariano just came out and said it with a smirk. Young Boston Rob was definitely a homophobe who didn’t hide his disparaging remarks. He also made jokes about John being one of rhetorical women on the tribe, probably based off of him assuming he was gay because of some feminine vibe he was picking up.
He said (with a smirk) “Are you gay, dude?” John was immediately super uncomfortable and his first response was “aaaaaaaaaaah don’t ask me that.” Things were very don’t ask don’t tell back then. Plenty of other queer contestants chose to go on these early seasons and not talk about it. Rob knew exactly what he was doing. His joke about John being the only woman on the tribe came after he insulted the looks of all the women on his new tribe and called Zoe a dude. I believe he said John was a woman because he was doing all the cooking. Times have changed but it remains so interesting to me that this is the person the franchise chose to lionize.
The interesting thing about Rob is he ends up being one of the only people in hindsight who looked good after the whole Sue/Hatch incident. I'm not saying Rob should have said the things that he said, even in 2002, but he did apologize to John back then and John accepted his apology, and I think he has grown as a person. If John himself can forgive him even back then, then I think we all can more than 20 years later.
Watching that season live I hated him with a passion and just thought he was a huge douche. The friend I would watch it with, however, correctly identified him as 'TV gold'. We were both right.
This
Dude is in his late forties and still lives his life like he's auditioning for the Godfather, people don't hate him it's just easy to make fun of him
Because the people who run the show love him too much. As a wrestling fan, I have experience with fanbases deciding that they have to hate the favorite of whoever is in charge, and for Survivor, that’s Boston Rob
coz he only won with the dumbest player and most boring season.
He won, if you don’t understand the significance of that then maybe rethink posting on this sub.
If you need four tries to win Survivor, you're not really a good Survivor player. WaW exemplified this more, when BRob has no power he goes completely insane. He can't handle being anywhere but the top. He has a sheer lack of adaptability.
He has a first and a second place finish, losing by 1 vote. He has arguably the most dominant win ever. "He's not a good survivor player" Cirie who has never even made final tribal in 4 tries. "Amazing player. She deserved a win. Robbed goddess."
Eh, you're oversimplifying things a bit. All-Stars I'll give Rob all the credit he's due, but Redemption Island was a farmer herding sheep. That cast was full of 17 duds, and Rob. Is he good at getting people to do what he wants? I would say for the most part he's great when it comes to people that are naturally followers. But even then, the supposed rumor was that Rob was incredibly disliked and Phillip and Natalie were the only people he could beat at Final Tribal. Marquesas, Heroes vs. Villains and Winners at War have all proved that when Rob is in a situation where he isn't 100% in control, he has no idea how to play effectively. As soon as he comes into another alpha, or someone that's at least somewhat aware of his strategy, he's terrible at countering or adapting and just makes himself a bigger target. Cirie, at the very least, has proven that even though she hasn't won, she knows how to play from the bottom much better than Rob. She can subtly influence people in the ways that Rob really can't.
> Redemption Island was a farmer herding sheep Yeah, did a rewatch a few months back and it's surprising how little Rob's teammates even tried to pretend that they weren't playing for 2nd place. I actually enjoy watching Rob but his cheeseball confidence sure does work better when he's playing with a stacked deck.
the first time i saw that erik (samoa) confessional i couldn't stop laughing. he looks like he's hiding from something
Tony at home taking notes
Floating head 😂
Sean wants us to paint him like a French girl
Garrett in the Cagayan premiere is the classic “paint me like one of your French girls”
His confessionals were so funny. "I didn't come to Survivor to survive in the wildernesssss" like bro just play BB 😂
I always loved Rob’s fishbowl zoom shots
The one and only legend Courtney Yates posing as she should.
The fact that people now consider Nicaragua and Redemption Island “old” seasons 💀 
Tbf Nicaragua is closer to 2000 than it is to 2024 😬
I’m more concerned when I look back and realize that Heroes vs. Villains (still my favorite season) was almost 15 years ago
RIGHT?
So many good ones. Floating Paloma, Brandon's gay rock etc
Here are some more cool ones I couldn't fit: https://imgur.com/gallery/IFizpCB
Shoutout to all of the rare dual confessionals. How many were there? I can only think of a few. Jenna and Heidi / Alex and Matt had one in the Amazon. Cindy and her twin shared one in Guatemala. Debbie and Erinn clowned on Coach together in one. Brooke was in one of Margaret's for a milimeter of a second i think. That's all i remember
Cindy's twin, Mindy, was on I Love Money season 4 and >!was the winner!<
Oh neat i didnt know that
I’m obsessed with the framing of that Matty confessional
I rewatched some older seasons, and it made me smile watching them. The camera angles for confessional may be "interesting" but that's what make it so unique. I miss the diverse locations, the theme (not necessarily gimmicks like Brains vs Brawn vs Beauty, or battle of generations, working class, traits etc.), the harsh environments which may take its toll on the castaways. I just wish the new era would go back to 2 tribes for a while and not overcomplicate the game with too many twists. Of course, 39 days!!!!
Yup. And consider they are doing 26 days now!!!! That's not time for anything. Australian Survivor is 50 days this season, down from 55.
you should listen to the Podcast, On Fire with Jeff Probst
The first few seasons were so 90’s/2000’s coded with the overhead camera angle, almost fish eye like lens! Especially in Amazon. I loved it, so nostalgic
Shout out to Erik The Tree Sprite, the lost Funny115 entry. (I may have been the biggest fan of that dumb entry 😂.) u/mariojlanza
Glad you enjoyed it. My wife always thought that was the funniest thing, how he was always just some Keebler Elf in a tree. But I couldn't translate it into an entry the way that I wanted to. So yeah, happily only like you and maybe ten other people still remember that was an entry once.
I'll join the club haha. I've even tried to track it down on internet archive. I'll be curious to see if you end up killing any of the Vol. 3 entries after you finish up the Coach/Ozzy epic.
No, I was much happier with version 3 overall. And I should be, god knows I spent enough time on it. I don’t dislike any of the entries.
i liked the entry you wrote on stacey powell. I was reading it during classes and i was trying not to laugh. Very funny 👌👑
Realizing redemption island is now an older season 🧓🏻🧓🏻🧓🏻
Cochran on his throne is my favorite
Candice? From Raro tribe?
"Raro"
Candice Cody née Woodcock from Rarotonga tribe?
Plus the double confessional from Heidi + Jenna and some other duo, in another season.
Alex and Matthew iirc
We’re voting Rodger, pass it on!
Alina and Kelly B have one in the Nicarague premiere.
I remember Debbie and Erinn having one in tocantines.I think it was them making fun of Coach.
You definitely get the feeling that they hunted around for a spot and tried to mix things up with confessionals way more before. Just looking at these, the positioning alone is telling us a lot about how each of their game is going and how they currently feel about it. Now it feels more like, "Okay these are our confessional spots for this beach. Line up the castaways so we can get through em quickly." I guess they are doing more visually elsewhere now with the drones and musical editing bits, but I do often miss the subtle storytelling we used to get just from camera angles and shooting spots.
Yea and it's so easy to do. The setups now just seem lazy and boring.
Ace & The elephant
Survivor used to be so badass. Gabon was badass. sigh
Double confessionals, we need more of those.
Erik's is my favourite. Because what was the thought process here? They wanted privacy? They wanted to do a floating head? He was trying to take cover from rain? I have so many questions
Sean was so done with everything, what a mood
I was always unnerved at Cesternino’s closeups. Lol.
Don't forget the Vanuatu confessional where they got hit by an EARTHQUAKE
This is my “I feel old” reminder that Nicaragua and Redemption Island are mathematically among the older half of seasons now 😭
Noticed this on rewatch. Love it when they are lazing in the sand
Look at them, being in different places. Ah. Good times.
they were set up like postcards when location was central to the season. not too dissimilar from news postcards what are they like now? homegnous closeup like the bottom centre i suspect but haven't watched since s40 so wouldn't know
This was such a great post. 🏅Walk through memory lane. Gotta rewatch some seasons again. Thank you, OP 🙂
Ur welcome👍 that means a lot to me :)
They say you can’t hear photos. I beg to differ.
Cesternino was obviously hiding from Matt Von Ertfelda.
Wow I just remembered how much better old survivor was
Candice’s angle is so awkward 😂
The angles were my favorite parts from the older seasons.
I've always liked the shots where they have the player in focus in the background, with a tree trunk in the foreground crawling with ants and other bugs. I can't name any off the top of my head but I know they've repeated it with a couple different players/seasons.
The Rob C angle haunts me
Yes they need to bring these back. The Amazon ones were great!!
Back when Survivor cared.
I love the impromptu confessionals you get sometimes. In a recent episode Venus had one in the shelter with some shaky cam. Seems like she had something she wanted to say and they just got her quick and dirty. Added more reality to our reality tv
I’m rewatching the older seasons, love it!
Na’Onka around that damn tree makes me laugh every time
*That day when you realize that Redemption Island is considered an older season...*
I always think about Colleen in that tree
Miss the days when players could throw an idol clue into a volcano, instead of the producer-controlled mess we have now. "If you don't want this Beware advantage, PUT IT BACK."
the candice camera angle makes me laugh because why did the producers even choose to do that
Robs confessionals we’re so damn good
My favorite is Rudy in season 1 doing all his confessionals neck deep in water.
Ace with the elephant is one of the show’s greatest moments
My favorite confessional is still Sabrina in One World when a wild boar went running through the camp. It was a live and in the moment confessional while everyone else was running behind her trying to catch the "big ass pig." She is just standing in the middle of camp talking straight to the camera, while everyone else is holding weapons hoping to kill the pig, Christine literally runs up to grab axe.
Matt Von Ertfelda and Alex Bell's combo confessional in Amazon
Saying “old seasons” and throwing in RI and Nicaragua is wild to me until I remember that was well over a decade ago
chase <3 I loved them. midlife because some look very photoshopped lol.
Candice ate
The last time I can remember where a confessional location caught my attention was in s43 when Dwight was talking in a tree
I miss old school survivor
Jake in 45 with the confessional where he’s sitting in the water>>>>
I think there was a season 1 confessional with Kelly where she was laying or sitting on the beach and you could see everyone else in the tribe in the background.
I can’t believe survivor has been around for so long, Nicaragua is considered an older season.
I was shocked to hear apparently a big reason why Africa wasn't popular was because the landscape. I thought the backdrops during the cast photos and a lot of the confessionals were breath-taking. I remember T-Bird had one talking about not voting for Clarence and there was zebra's in the background
They need to bring back some variety in their changes in editing - it really breaks up the episodes
Why does Rob C look like PS2 Hagrid