‘The Traitors’: Rob Cesternino Praises Cast’s ‘Survivor’ Records

It’s been 22 years since two-time Survivor player Rob Cesternino was on reality TV. Almost 16 years to the day after he launched Rob Has a Podcast — a reality TV podcast empire — Cesternino returns to the small screen tonight (January 8) in The Traitors Season 4. Joining him are fellow Survivor alums Natalie Anderson and Yam Yam Arocho. TV Insider connected with Cesternino to discuss his upcoming Survivor book, The Tribe and I Have Spoken, and he opened up about his Traitors costars.

All Cesternino could tease about the Peacock competition series was “a lot of excitement and not much more.” But he did share why he thinks Anderson and Arocho are such strong Survivor players. Anderson won Survivor: San Juan del Sur (Season 29) and was the runner-up in Winners at War (Season 40) after a 33-day stint in exile on Edge of Exinction. Arocho won Survivor 44 and was part of the beloved Tika Three alliance with Carolyn Wiger (from Traitors Season 3) and Carson Garrett.

Cesternino shared why Anderson and Arocho are going to make good TV on Traitors.

“Just talking about them as Survivor players, Natalie wins one of the great Survivor seasons in San Juan del Sur. Her story, where she gets payback for what they did to Jeremy [Collins], is just one of the all-time greatest single Survivor stories there ever was. And Yam Yam, of course, what a big personality. I’m sure everybody’s going to be excited to see him on The Traitors.”

Cesternino released the first episode of Rob Has a Podcast on February 12, 2010, long before the whole world and their mother started making podcasts. RHAP has been a consistent source of reality TV entertainment for fans ever since, providing meaningful analysis of Survivor and other competition shows, as well as live shows where Cesternino hosts Survivor watch parties in front of a packed audience.

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Cesternino finished in third place on Survivor: The Amazon (Season 6) and was praised for his strategic skills. He was the fourth person voted out of the first returning players season, Survivor: All-Stars (Season 8), in 2004. In the time since, he’s made himself a fixture of the Survivor viewing experience through his podcast. Fans were hoping he’d be in the Survivor 50 cast, but it didn’t pan out.

Given his reputation for expert reality TV analysis, we asked Cesternino to share what he thinks is the greatest reality TV moment of 2025. He gave the crown to The Traitors Season 3.

“The best moment of 2025 was, I’ll say, The Traitors roundtable when Boston Rob [Mariano] went after Bob the Drag Queen,” Cesternino said. “It was just such an exciting moment to have the two traitors go after each other so early in the season. We had not seen that before in the US Traitors, and to have it all come together so quickly, where it’s like, ‘Wait, is he really going to do that right now?’ It was just a great moment. Both of those guys are great players, and to have it come to a head like that, where Danielle [Reyes] and Carolyn [Wiger] didn’t know what was going on either, that was a really, really exciting one.”

“I’ll say an honorable mention,” he added. “I’ll say the Golden God [David Genat] winning $6 million on Deal or No Deal Island. RIP, DONDI.”

Boston Rob and Bob are now the hosts of the official Traitors podcast for Season 4. Deal or No Deal Island was canceled after Genat’s win in December.

The Traitors, Season 4 Premiere, Thursday, January 8, 9/8c, Peacock