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Traitors & Deal or No Deal Island Contestants Talk Gaming Strategy with Joe Manganiello
Boston Rob, Sandra Diaz-Twine, Kate Chastain, and Deal or No Deal Island host Joe Manganiello talked shop.
The Traitors might have all been rooted out with the conclusion of the second season of Peacock’s smash-hit reality competition show, but there are still more games to be played. Deal or No Deal Island, NBC’s new spin on the classic briefcase-opening game that adds Survivor-esque challenges and competitive dynamics, is currently airing. The two shows have some similarities, too. On The Traitors, Sandra Diaz-Twine was one of the Survivor veterans playing to win alongside others. On Deal or No Deal Island, Boston Rob, one of the greatest Survivor players ever, is competing to win the biggest prize in Deal or No Deal history.
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Diaz-Twine and Boston Rob (whose full name is Rob Mariano), chatted with Deal or No Deal Island host Joe Manganiello and Kate Chastain, a breakout star of Bravo’s Below Deck and the only two-time Traitors contestant, about various aspects of reality show strategy.
Boston Rob Declares Kate Chastain a True "Gamer"
Some Traitors viewers think that the reality all-star contestants who come from competitive shows where there’s a winner each season, like Survivor or Big Brother, have an edge over people from more social shows like Below Deck or Real Housewives. Whether or not that’s true, Chastain said she wanted to approach her second Traitors appearance with more of a “gamer” mentality. Mariano thought that Chastain was definitely a gamer no matter what she thought of herself.
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“I just gotta say I watched you on both seasons of Traitors and you are a rock star, like literally completely natural,” he said. “I watched you in your interviews during the season after, in the actual gameplay. So I don't know, you were definitely born for this role because you were super entertaining and I loved watching every minute of it."
“Does that mean I'm officially a gamer?” asked Chastain. “If Boston Rob says I'm a gamer, am I a gamer?”
“I mean you know, you're a gamer so don't play that game with me,” he replied.
Sandra Diaz-Twine Used Other Players' Ignorance of Survivor to Her Advantage
Speaking to Manganiello, Diaz-Twine said that other Traitors contestants had an incorrect view of what being on Survivor entailed — or they didn’t even know seemingly basic facts about the game. For instance, Diaz-Twine recalled how many people called Dan Gheesling a two-time winner of Big Brother, which he was, but nobody seemed to place the same reverence around her own two Survivor wins.
Another The Traitors Season 2 player, Phaedra Parks, from The Real Housewives of Atlanta and Married to Medicine, had an incorrect read of Survivor, Diaz-Twine said.
“I remember Phaedra saying to me, ‘You guys are schemers and you backstab and you lie and you cheat,’" Diaz-Twine said. “And I'm like, ‘Phaedra, did you watch Survivor?’ And she's like, ‘No.’ And I was like, ‘That's not even how it is.’”
Kate Chastain Used Parvati Shallow's Survivor “Villain” Status to Help Peg Her as a Traitor
Chastain said she knew that Diaz-Twine and Parvati Shallow, another Season 2 contestant and a decorated Survivor veteran, had a rivalry because she had “done her homework.” She also said that she used Shallow’s Survivor appearances to help determine that she was a Traitor — specifically her time on Season 20, Heroes vs. Villains (which Mariano also competed on and Diaz-Twine won).
“I asked Parvati. She said she had done Heroes vs. Villains. And I was like, 'Well, which one were you, Parvati?' And she was a villain,” Chastain recalled. “And at that point, I already was getting traitor vibes from her anyway. But I'm like, if Survivor is gonna cast you as a villain, I bet The Traitors will too.”
Boston Rob Reveals the Type of Traitors Contestant He’d Like to Play With
Mariano said that both Diaz-Twine and Chastain had what, in his mind, makes people good at this game.
“I think a lot of players that are really good at these games have a lot of the same qualities,” he said. “Sandra's social game is second to none. Kate, you're a natural, like the way that you're able to read people and assess them so quickly and then figure out how to get in there."
RELATED: Where to Watch Deal or No Deal Island, Hosted by Joe Manganiello
Mariano added that Claudia Jordan, a former Deal or No Deal Briefcase Girl and contender on Deal or No Deal Island who was cast out in Episode 3, has similar qualities.
“What you see is what you get,” Mariano said of Jordan. “Maybe you like her, maybe you don't like her, but you don't ever have to wonder where you stand with someone like that. That's the type of person that I wanna play these games with.”
Would Bostob Rob Compete on The Traitors?
When Manganiello asked Mariano if he had ever thought “How would I play this? What would I do?” when watching The Traitors, the Survivor winner was strategically coy.
“Of course, of course, you can't watch it and not Monday morning quarterback it, Joe,” he said. “But I'll tell you this: I'm also smart enough to know that if I did have any kind of strategy or inkling, I'm sure as hell not telling you over here.”
All episodes of both seasons of The Traitors are streaming on Peacock. New episodes of Deal or No Deal Island premiere on Mondays at 10 p.m. ET/PT. All episodes are available next day on Peacock.
