{"id":704440,"date":"2026-05-30T20:18:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T20:18:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/704440\/"},"modified":"2026-05-30T20:18:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T20:18:13","slug":"survivor-50-boston-rob-says-jonathan-young-butchered-his-exit-press-exclusive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/704440\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Survivor 50’: Boston Rob Says Jonathan Young ‘Butchered’ His Exit Press (Exclusive)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cBoston Rob\u201d Mariano<\/a> helped Jonathan Young<\/a> prepare for\u00a0Survivor 50<\/a>, and Jonathan ended up in the final three with three votes to win from the jury. In exit interviews the day after his loss, Jonathan told TV Insider<\/a> and other press that he feels he played a better game than winner Aubry Bracco<\/a> and that his loss was due to a bitter jury. Specifically, he said that he feels Cirie Fields<\/a> influenced corralling votes for Aubry at Ponderosa, where the jury lives<\/a> after their eliminations and before the final tribal council. Rob told TV Insider that Jonathan botched these interviews.<\/p>\n

Boston Rob is on most\u00a0Survivor fans lists of the greatest players of all time. He\u2019s played five times and won once. And of course, he met his wife,\u00a0Survivor: All-Stars winner Amber Mariano<\/a>, while filming that season. They\u2019ve been married for 21 years and attended the\u00a0Survivor 50\u00a0live finale on May 20 in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

Rob came by TV Insider\u2019s studio at the 2026 ATX TV Festival<\/a> in Austin, Texas, on Friday, May 29, where he discussed his experience at the\u00a0Survivor 50 live finale, mentoring Jonathan,\u00a0The Traitors, and more. Did Jonathan follow Rob\u2019s advice for Season 50?<\/p>\n

\u201cMostly, he did,\u201d Rob said. He then explained where Jonathan may have misstepped during the game: jury management.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s not me, he can\u2019t play my game. He has to play his game. He did the best he could,\u201d Rob said. \u201cI think when it got to the stage where there was a jury and there wasn\u2019t a jury, I remember telling him you\u2019ve got to count your votes and [being] careful about how you put people on the jury is more important than just getting to the end. But at the same time, if you\u2019re so careful and you don\u2019t get to the end, then you lose either way. But I think he did a good job overall.\u201d<\/p>\n

In response to Jonathan\u2019s exit interviews, Rob said, \u201cHe butchered his press.\u201d Rob doesn\u2019t think that Aubry\u2019s win should be discredited.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt gets hard, because he\u2019s a pretty emotional guy and I think he took it really hard,\u201d he explained. \u201cBut I told him that that was a wrong move. I don\u2019t think belittling Aubry\u2019s game to make your game better is a good look, and he agrees. But in the moment, he felt it. You can\u2019t take it away from Aubry. She won. I always have said the person that wins is the one that deserves to win. The jury can vote however they want. It\u2019s your job to manage them. I give Aubry a lot of credit.\u201d<\/p>\n

How did he and Amber react to Jeff Probst accidentally spoiling the results<\/a> of the fire-making challenge?<\/p>\n

\u201cI was actually separated from her when that actually happened. She was in the audience, and I was backstage, but I did see it on one of the monitors,\u201d Rob shared. \u201cAnd you know what, Jeff\u2019s such a pro. He came right out and he admitted it, made a joke about it. They haven\u2019t done a live finale in five years, and sometimes [in] live TV, that stuff happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cListen, Jeff\u2019s a pro,\u201d he added. \u201cLet\u2019s think about this: For the 40 seasons before, he never made a mistake, OK? Nobody\u2019s talking about that. If I\u2019m 40 and one, I\u2019m OK.\u201d<\/p>\n

Season 50 contestant\/White Lotus<\/a> creator Mike White<\/a> revealed during the live finale that Charlie Davis and Kamilla Karthigesu <\/a>will make cameos in\u00a0The White Lotus\u00a0Season 4<\/a>. While\u00a0Survivor players have made cameos<\/a> in every season of the Emmy-winning HBO drama so far, Rob has not been one of them. Has he ever talked to White about the possibility?<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never met Mike,\u201d Rob told us. But he\u2019s not shooting down the idea.<\/p>\n

\u201cI spoke on the phone with him briefly, but I\u2019ve never met Mike,\u201d Rob said. \u201cBut if he wants me, call me, Mike. I\u2019ll go.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not really an actor,\u201d he joked. \u201cCan I play myself? In the corner making a fire or something.\u201d<\/p>\n

Survivor 51, Premieres Fall 2026, CBS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cBoston Rob\u201d Mariano helped Jonathan Young prepare for\u00a0Survivor 50, and Jonathan ended up in the final three with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":704441,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[49,48,75,348],"class_list":["post-704440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=704440"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704440\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/704441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=704440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=704440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=704440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}