Why Boston Rob Had to Leave ‘Survivor: All-Stars’ In Secret

'Survivor All-Stars' Boston Rob Mariano and Amber Brkich at the all-stars finale in Madison Square Garden

Getty 'Survivor All-Stars' Boston Rob Mariano and Amber Brkich at the all-stars finale in Madison Square Garden

In a recent interview, six-time “Survivor” player Boston Rob Mariano told a story about “Survivor: All-Stars” that is almost too outrageous to believe — except we watched that season and it makes total sense. Find out why he and his now-wife Amber Brkich Mariano had to be smuggled out of Panama after “All-Stars” wrapped and also the crazy thing Mariano did as soon as he got home.


The Fellow All-Stars Were So Angry That the Show Smuggled Out the Marianos In the Middle of the Night

“Survivor” reporter Dalton Ross (“Entertainment Weekly”) and former castaways Rick Devens (“Edge of Extinction” 4th place) and Brendan Shapiro (“Ghost Island” 17th place) recently started a podcast centered around their mutual love for the Washington D.C. professional football and “Survivor.” The podcast is called “Surviving Snyder,” in reference to the Washington football team owner Dan Snyder.

Their first guest was Boston Rob Mariano, who told a couple of wild stories about his time on the show that somehow he has never shared before. The first came about because Ross asked Mariano if it’s true that the show sent him and his now-wife Amber Brkich Mariano home on a separate plane because the rest of the “All-Stars” cast was so mad at them. Mariano confirmed that that is in fact true and he added that it happened in the dead of night.

“It is true. We flew [home] on a separate plane. It was me, Amber, [host Jeff Probst and creator Mark Burnett]. We left in the middle of the night,” said Mariano, adding that the rest of the castaways were “so mad.”

“They were so mad [after the final Tribal Council]. They were even more mad when they found out we were gone. We flew back, the four of us. It was just through Miami from Panama, it was just a couple of hours. But we left in the middle of the night on a secret boat, just the four of us,” Mariano recalled with a laugh.

In case you’ve forgotten how “All-Stars” ended, the final Tribal Council was brutal — so many jury members were angry with Mariano, blaming him for their eliminations from the show. While we do think Brkich played a very smart game, part of the reason she won was because the jury was so mad at Mariano.


Mariano Went Home and Immediately Had to Plow Snow

Talk about a whirlwind 24 hours — Mariano also revealed that he went from the final Tribal Council, to being smuggled out of Panama, to landing in the U.S., to getting up to Boston, Massachusetts, and having to go plow snow for the city.

“There was a big snowstorm in Boston when I got home that night and I promised my boss when I got home if there was anything going on that I would call him and I would go to work,” said Mariano, “and no bulls***, dude, 24 hours — Tribal Council happened and the next night, I was in a front-end loader in the city of Boston plowing streets.”

He added that he weighed 140 pounds at the time and it was “surreal” to experience that kind of whiplash, going from playing “Survivor” to plowing snow in the span of a day.

“Survivor” returns for its 41st season on Wednesday, September 22. The 42nd season will air in the spring of 2022.

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