11 hours ago
Watch: Bob Harper to Rob Mariano: 'You Better Watch Your Back' after Going After Queer 'The Traitors' Cast Members
Kilian Melloy READ TIME: 2 MIN.
Spoiler alert: This article contains revealing details about the current season of "The Traitors."
Is "Boston Rob" Mariano out to scrub "The Traitors" of its queer cast members? Out gay "Biggest Loser" alum Bob Harper, one of the contestants Mariano has gone after this season, suggested as much in an interview with Pride Magazine, and while he was at it he issued a warning to Rob: "You better watch your back!"
"Pride Today" host Ricky Cornish welcomed Harper to his show after Harper was "the latest to be murdered" on the show, which pits a majority of "Faithful" against a small cabal of titular "Traitors," who select cast members one by one for overnight "murders" that see them removed from the competition. Doubling down on the havoc, the Traitors then work to sow suspicion among the surviving Faithful in order to manipulate them into voting other Faithful contestants off the show.
Mariano was instrumental in orchestrating the ejection of Bob the Drag Queen after Bob worked to create doubt about Mariano, even though they were both Traitors.
Mariano also went after Harper, and the now-former contestant didn't appreciate it.
"Boston Rob, man – lemma tell ya," Harper exclaimed to Cornish. "He had it in for me."
"He really did," Cornish agreed. "That's the thing about Rob Mariano: Anybody who goes against him, he makes it their mission to go against them back."
Harper questioned why Mariano seemed to make it a point to go after "the two queers on the show..."
"Why you gotta be taking out Bob the Drag Queen and the other queer Bob in the house?" Harper asked. "I don't know."
This season of "The Traitors" has more than two LGBTQ+ cast members. As Pride noted, "there's still quite a few queer contestants to root for: 'Survivor's' Carolyn Wiger, 'Selling Sunset's' Chrishell Stause, 'The Bachelor's' Gabby Windey, and Lord Ivar Mountbatten."
Still, Mariano was active in getting rid of both of the LGBTQ+ cast members to be ousted so far.
"It's not a good look," Cornish agreed.
Harper went after Mariano's style, declaring, "Girl, do you need to wear that hat backwards all the time? I'm over it. I can't look at that."
Harper also threw down a gauntlet that sounded more general than a warning directed solely at Mariano.
"You better watch your back!" Harper declared. "I think that it's important now more than ever to just be a little bit more in-your-face."
"I have a place here in this world," Harper went on to say. "I'm an American just as much as the next person. This is my world, and I'm going to take ownership!"
To watch the interview, follow this link. To watch new episodes of "The Traitors," tune in Thursday nights on Peacock.
Kilian Melloy serves as EDGE Media Network's Associate Arts Editor and Staff Contributor. His professional memberships include the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association, the Boston Online Film Critics Association, The Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association, and the Boston Theater Critics Association's Elliot Norton Awards Committee.