Rob Mariano

Robert Carlo "Rob" Mariano (commonly known as Boston Rob) is the Sole Survivor of. He originally competed on, , and. Rob returned as a mentor for.

The series' first four-time contestant, Rob is regarded as one of the smartest and most devious contestants in Survivor history, and is renowned for his charismatic leadership, challenge prowess, and cutthroat strategy.

Rob also competed alongside Amber on The Amazing Race and is often referenced as one of the historical touchstones of  strategy, as evidenced by Phillip's deployment of "the Boston Rob rules" on.

While Rob has been considered one of the best players ever by host Jeff Probst and many fans, there are many who criticize him for taking four attempts to finally win and having an enormous and unfair advantage in Redemption Island for being a four-time player.

Profile
Retrieved from CBS.com

Marquesas
Mariano was initially lambasted for not doing much at Maraamu camp despite his physique but he made a strong alliance with Sarah Jones, Vecepia Towery, and Sean Rector. When Maraamu suffered three consecutive Immunity Challenge losses, the pact targeted weak link Patricia Jackson first on Day 6, while eventually turning to Hunter Ellis, the tribe's de facto leader and perceived strongest member. After Ellis' elimination, Rob assumed the leadership position at Maraamu, but it was short-lived when he was transferred (along with Rector and Towery) to Rotu after a Tribe Switch on Day 10.

Since the switch, the four-person alliance crumbled. After Jones' elimination (she was left at Maraamu, which lost yet again), the four original members of Rotu decided to gang up on the new members because they felt that Sean and Rob took their poor work ethic at their camp, while Vecepia was castigated as preachy and pretentious. After losing the Day 15 Immunity Challenge, the original Rotu members planned to vote Rob out first, but it was their fellow original member Gabriel Cade's apathetic approach toward the game that changed their minds. Rob was spared thanks to John's lobbying, and Cade was eliminated instead.

After Rotu's first Tribal Council, Rob confronted the original members to confirm if they had an alliance. With nobody giving an impressive answer, Rob lashed out at them, but John halfheartedly stated that they would vote Kathy Vavrick-O'Brien, Paschal English, and Neleh Dennis (fellow original Rotu members, but switched at Maraamu) first. Despite the tension, Mariano led Rotu to a comeback by winning the Day 18 Immunity Challenge.

On Day 19, Mariano volunteered to be Rotu's ambassador for the merge summit, where he tried to turn Maraamu's ambassador, Kathy, against her former comrades by telling that Zoe Zanidakis (a perceived friend by Kathy) was plotting against her. When the tribes were officially merged, Rob tried to throw the Rotu Four alliance under the bus by initiating a conversation about the foursome wanting to get rid of Kathy. Despite his valiant efforts, Rob's scheming sent him packing in a 7-2-1 vote (with votes coming from the Rotu Four alliance, Neleh, Paschal, and Rob's ally Vecepia).

All-Stars
"chapera"

- She's beautiful; any idiot can see that.

Boston Rob was one of the eighteen returning contestants in Survivor: All-Stars and was placed at the red Chapera tribe. In the beginning, Rob quickly made an alliance with tribemates Amber Brkich (which gradually turned into romance), Tom Buchanan and Alicia Calaway. Rob led the Chapera tribe into a winning streak, winning four of the first six challenges, making Chapera the most dominant of the three competing tribes of the season. When Chapera finally lost immunity on Day 11, Rob orchestrated Rob Cesternino's elimination.

After a twist dissolved the rival Saboga tribe Rob recruited the two new additions, Rupert Boneham and Jenna Lewis, to his alliance. Any strategizing was put on hold for several days, as Chapera won the next three Immunity Challenges.

After a surprise tribe shuffle on Day 22, all Chapera members minus Amber, who remained with Chapera, were swapped to the Mogo Mogo tribe, to Rob's disappointment. With Amber's absence, Rob fortified the alliance with Tom and Alicia. After winning the next Immunity Challenge, Rob sensed Amber was in trouble, so he proposed a deal with Lex van den Berghe, a friend of Rob's outside Survivor to spare Amber, in exchange for his safety. After much deliberation, Lex, along with the remaining former Mogo Mogo members, disposed one of the own, Jerri Manthey.

When the tribes merged on Day 26, Lex approached Rob if their deal was still in effect. Much to the former's chagrin, Rob had reneged on his promise, sending him home. The former Chapera members then eliminated the former Mogo Mogo, Kathy Vavrick-O'Brien, Rob's fellow cast member. With the last Mogo Mogo, Shii Ann Huang immune, the Chapera alliance were forced to turn on each other. But after promising not to write her name down earlier, Rob swerved Chapera's votes to Alicia's direction, eliminating her. Shii Ann failed to win the next Immunity Challenge and soon followed.

On Day 35, Rob won the next Reward Challenge, winning himself a car and a drive-in film viewing experience to watch the original 1963 version of The Lord of the Flies. He chose Amber to join him, only to find out Amber would receive a car as well. Returning to camp, Rob was suspicious that Tom and Rupert plotted against him and Amber during their absence, and as a solution, he pitted the two against one another. After winning the next Immunity Challenge, Tom was torn between two duos, Rob and Amber, and Rupert and Jenna. Rob and Amber assured Tom they were on his side, and they would vote out Jenna together. But much to Tom's surprise, he was blindsided by a unanimous vote, but not before leaving Tribal Council and giving Rob a piercing stare.

On Day 37, anticipating a tie vote between himself and Amber and Rupert and Jenna, Rob lobbied Jenna to eliminate Rupert, stating he was a threat to collect more jury votes. Threatened by the possibility of pulling out rocks, Jenna sided with Rob and Amber, sending Rupert home. After winning the Final Immunity Challenge, Rob chose Amber to join him at the final two, sending Jenna to the jury.

On Day 39, Rob and Amber enjoyed romantic moments. At the Final Tribal Council, Rob was blasted by several jury members for his numerous deception. Ultimately, Rob lost the title of Sole Survivor to Amber after a 4-3 vote. Just before the votes were read at the, Rob proposed to Amber, to which she said yes.

Heroes vs. Villains
"villains"

- If these people are smart, they'll get rid of me right away! But they won't. They never do.

Assigned to the Villains tribe following his All-Stars appearance, Rob quickly became the de facto leader and helped his tribe achieve success, building fire without the aid of a flint by making a fire saw, and won the first Immunity Challenge for the Villains, thanks to his superb puzzle-solving skills.

The next day, Rob was infuriated by his tribe's poor work ethic, Rob walked to the woods and collapsed later. Tribemate Jerri Manthey found him unconscious in the jungle, prompting the Survivor medical team to intervene. When the medics found nothing to worry about, they cleared him to continue competing. Rob then led the Villains to another victory, winning them their second straight challenge. Despite his strong work ethic and popularity within the tribe, he gained an enemy in newcomer Russell Hantz.

Rob then formed the majority alliance on the Villains of 6, that was up against Russell Hantz's alliance of himself, Parvati Shallow, and Danielle DiLorenzo.

At the Day 15 double Tribal Council, Rob won individual immunity. His alliance planned to split the votes 3-3 against Hantz and Shallow, and if someone played the idol then the votes won't count, and then a re-vote would occur and his alliance would vote out the non-idol player. However, Hantz persuaded Tyson Apostol to switch his vote to Parvati, and Russell played his idol on her, thus eliminating Tyson, Rob's closest ally.

Despite still having the numbers in the tribe, Rob's alliance began to crumble. When Jerri Manthey switched sides to Russell's alliance and Coach Wade insisting on voting off the tribe's weakest link Courtney, Rob was voted out 4-3-1.

At the, the feud between Russell and Rob was mentioned and would later be settled a year later in.

Redemption Island
Unlike his nemesis Russell Hantz, Rob was warmly received by his tribe. It didn't take him long to be accepted into an alliance, which consisted of Andrea Boehlke, Matt Elrod, Grant Mattos, Natalie Tenerelli, and Ashley Underwood. His first target was Kristina Kell, who was looking for the Hidden Immunity Idol. They decided to split the vote between Kristina and Francesca Hogi when Ometepe lost the first Immunity Challenge. At that Tribal Council, Rob saw an opportunity to manipulate Phillip, who was a loose cannon. Phillip's vote would break the tie and send Francesca to Redemption Island. When Ometepe lost the second Immunity Challenge, Rob made a deal with Phillip that he would protect Phillip and welcome him into the Ometepe Alliance if he followed the plan and acted as if he was getting voted out, but he told him that it wasn't Phillip going home. Rob and the Ometepe Alliance then blindsided Matt, a member of their own alliance. They did this because they feared Andrea and Matt would develop into a power couple, very much like Rob and Amber did in Survivor: All-Stars. After Ometepe won the third challenge, they then voted out Kristina, but split the vote with Phillip, just in case she had the idol. Rob then found his own Idol when he lied that he had bowel problems and went to look for it. Ometepe then won the remaining Immunity Challenges left until the merge, turning an 8 to 6 disadvantage into a 6-5 advantage pending the result of the final duel.

When Matt re-entered the game as a result of Redemption Island, he decided to keep with Rob despite considering flipping. He was honest in telling Rob he was initially considering flipping on their alliance, which prompted Rob turned his other allies on Matt, thus sending him back to Redemption Island. The Ometepe Alliance then started their pagonging of the Zapatera Tribe, voting off Mike Chiesl, David Murphy, Julie Wolfe, Ralph Kiser, and Steve Wright. During this period, Zapatera tried to target either Rob or Phillip unsuccessfully, with only a few instances of his allies briefly straying from his buddy system strategy. It would be that strategy that caused Natalie to alert Rob that Ashley was considering working with some Zapatera members, which solidified that Rob would try to go to the end with Phillip and Natalie.

After Steve was voted out, there was nowhere left to hide, and the Ometepe Alliance was forced to turn on themselves. Rob continued to be in control, and he convinced everybody to vote off Andrea instead of Phillip, who he conspired to take to the Final Three with because of his unpopularity with the jury members. Ashley was Rob's next intended target due to her previous albeit minor betrayal of trust as well as her closeness to Natalie. This plan was halted when Ashley won the Immunity Challenge. Rob was forced to eliminate his good friend in the game, Grant, due to his superior strength in challenges to Natalie. Andrea then came back into the game via Redemption Island and was then voted off again by Rob, Phillip, Natalie, and Ashley, who was starting to open her eyes to Rob's gameplay. Rob played his idol as it was the last chance to do so, negating Andrea's vote and forcing Ashley and Natalie to vote for Andrea. Rob had destroyed all other clues or evidence to other Immunity Idols in the game. Rob then won immunity from the second to last Tribal Council, and thus won a spot in the final three. Rob then decided to take Phillip and Natalie to the final three with him. He believed he could win against them because Phillip is disliked by the jury especially by the Zapatera members, and Natalie had done nothing in the game and around camp, and had just been one of his minions. Ashley, realizing that she was going to get voted off, tried to convince Natalie to vote for Phillip, forcing a tie, but Natalie stayed loyal to Rob, consequently voting off Ashley.

At the Final Tribal Council, Rob delivered his argument to why he should be the Sole Survivor, which was much more developed than Phillip's or Natalie's, which were both very weak. However, he was criticized for being cutthroat and a cult leader, and his potentially creepy relationship with Natalie. Rob raised the stakes by saying that regardless of tonight's result, this would be his last day on Survivor. David lobbied for Rob to get the votes needed to win, citing Rob's gameplay this season as one of the best in Survivor history. Rob then won an easy victory, mastering his strategy and finally becoming the Sole Survivor, only losing Ralph's vote to Phillip, as Phillip said earlier that Ralph was Zapatera's hardest worker. Rob won by an 8-1-0 margin.

Voting History
In Seems Like a No Brainer, Rob used a Hidden Immunity Idol, negating 1 vote against him.

Post-Survivor

 * A week after, Rob was nominated on Survivor: America's Tribal Council in the Sexiest Male category, but lost to Colby Donaldson.
 * On January 9, 2010, Rob attended Survivor ' s 10-year anniversary party along with all of his castmates.
 * Rob was inducted into Xfinity's Survivor Hall of Fame in 2010.
 * In February 2010, Rob appeared on  as Top Ten List Presenter #6 along with nine of his Heroes vs. Villains castmates.
 * In the fall of 2010, Rob appeared in a "Stand Up 2 Cancer" commercial along with Colby Donaldson, Ethan Zohn, Parvati Shallow, and Rupert Boneham.
 * Rob was a co-host on The History Channel TV series Around the World in 80 Ways, which first aired on October 1, 2011. Rob, along with professional monster truck driver Dennis Anderson, travel around the world using 80 various forms of transportation.
 * At the Reunion Show, Rob announced the release of his book "The Boston Rob Rulebook", containing his strategies for Survivor and his life and presented the first copy to his former  tribemate Phillip Sheppard. Rob stated that Phillip's constant reference to him partly inspired him to write the book.
 * Rob, along with eight other former castaways competed on a Survivor edition of The Price Is Right primetime special that aired on May 23, 2016.  Rob and his partner, Alysse, lost their pricing game and failed to make the Showcase.  While spinning the wheel, Rob made a shout-out to Amber and their children.

Marriage

 * In the summer of 2009, Rob (not a Survivor winner yet) appeared on the TVGuide special "Survivor Millionaires: Where Are They Now?" during Amber's segment.
 * Rob and Amber were married on April 16, 2005, on Paradise Island, Bahamas. In 2007, Rob and Amber starred on a reality TV show, Rob and Amber: Against the Odds, chronicling their married life and Rob's professional poker career.
 * Rob and Amber have four daughters: Lucia Rose (born July 4, 2009 ), Carina Rose (born December 10, 2010 ), Isabetta Rose (born May 5, 2013 ), and Adelina Rose (born June 20, 2014)

The Amazing Race

 * In late 2004, Rob and Amber Brkich (then engaged), competed on the seventh season of The Amazing Race. The couple won four individual legs but ultimately finished the race in second place.
 * Rob and Amber attended the wedding of fellow The Amazing Race​ team Ray Hosteau and Deana Shane on May 21, 2005.
 * In late 2006, Rob and Amber returned as newlyweds in the first Amazing Race: All-Stars, where they won the first three legs, but were eliminated on the fourth, finishing in eight place.

Trivia

 * Rob's luxury item on  was an American football.
 * Rob was the youngest male member of the Maraamu tribe.
 * Rob, along with Sean Rector and Vecepia Towery, is the first castaway to be on a tribe with every member of their cast at one point.
 * Rob, Sean, and Vecepia are the only ones to do so in a season with only two pre-merge tribes.
 * In Marquesas, Rob was the first castaway to be voted out after switching tribes, and the only person to switch tribes and not make the final five.
 * Both women Rob was attracted on Survivor to were born on August 11.
 * Rob and Shii Ann Huang are the first castaways to return for a second season despite not reaching the jury stage in their original season.
 * In both  and, Rob won the most individual Immunity Challenges in the season with 4 in both seasons. In All-Stars, Rob was the only person to win individual immunity more than once.
 * Rob, along with Colby Donaldson, Jerri Manthey, Tina Wesson, Rupert Boneham, and Coach Wade, are the only six castaways to compete in seasons with 16, 18, and 20 castaways.
 * Rob is one of the six castaways that experienced all the phases of all the game, being voted out pre-merge, post-merge, and making it to the Final Tribal Council. He was voted out pre-merge on, post-merge on Marquesas, and made it to the Final Tribal Council on All-Stars and Redemption Island. Colby Donaldson, Tina Wesson, Stephenie LaGrossa, Tyson Apostol, J.T. Thomas, and Aubry Bracco are the others.
 * Rob is the first four-time returning player. He was later followed by Rupert Boneham, Cirie Fields, and Ozzy Lusth.
 * Rob is the only contestant to appear on the DVD cover of four different seasons; the other four-time contestants were each omitted from the cover of one of their seasons.
 * Rob is the only four-time contestant to have won the game.
 * Counting his role in, Rob is the first contestant to participate in some form in five different seasons of .
 * Rob is the first of two people to win at least one individual Immunity Challenge in three separate seasons. The second is Andrea Boehlke.
 * Rob is the fifth and most recent castaway to make to the Final Tribal Council twice. The others are Amanda Kimmel, Russell Hantz, Sandra Diaz-Twine, and Parvati Shallow.
 * Despite playing four times, Rob never served on the jury. He was voted out immediately before the jury began in Marquesas and Heroes vs. Villains, and made the Final Tribal Council in All-Stars and Redemption Island.
 * Rob is the first male castaway to win a season as a returning player and fourth overall following his wife Amber, Parvati Shallow, and Sandra Diaz-Twine. He was followed by John Cochran, Tyson Apostol, Jeremy Collins, and Sarah Lacina.
 * Rob is the first and only male castaway and the only returning player to win a season with one returning player per tribe.
 * Rob lost 30 lbs. during his time on Redemption Island.
 * In all four seasons Rob competed, the tribe he started out at produced the eventual Sole Survivor.
 * He is one of two people to hold this distinction that has played more than two times. The other is Andrea Boehlke, who shared a tribe with Rob on one occasion.
 * Rob is one of six winners to have played the game at least three times. The others are Tyson Apostol, Tina Wesson, Parvati Shallow, J.T. Thomas, and Sandra Diaz-Twine.
 * Rob is the only losing finalist to win the game on a later season.
 * Rob holds the record for most individual immunity wins in his Survivor career, winning nine individual Immunity Challenges over his four seasons.
 * Rob also holds the record for most tribal immunity wins at 16.
 * With 117 days accumulated over his career, Rob has played the most days out of anyone who became the Sole Survivor.