While new era seasons of “Survivor” have featured challenges sponsored by corporations like Applebees, long-time fans of the reality competition series will remember that vintage seasons frequently boasted automotive corporate sponsorships, offering castaways the chance to win a brand new car while simultaneously competing for the series’ $1 million grand prize.
From Season 2 (“Survivor: The Australian Outback) to Season 14 (“Survivor: Fiji), longtime host Jeff Probst awarded 12 lucky castaways with a fresh set of wheels from sponsors like Chevrolet, Saturn, Pontiac and GMC. Unfortunately for the contestants who won the aforementioned cars, the reward has since been widely regarded as a jinx.
Known amongst “Survivor” fans as the “car curse,” no contestant who has ever won a vehicle on the show went on to claim the title of “Sole Survivor” – at least not on the same season – or the million dollar check that comes with it.
Perhaps the most successful victim of the infamous “car curse” is five-time player Rob “Boston Rob” Mariano, who walked away from his time on “Survivor: All Stars” as the proud owner of a brand-new 2004 Chevrolet Colorado.
Boston Rob Says He Knew He Was Going to Win the Car Reward on ‘Survivor: All-Stars”
Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, Boston Rob said that it didn’t matter what kind of challenge Probst put in front of him, as soon as he saw the reward, he knew “there is no way I’m losing this.”
The reward challenge came on Day 34 of Mariano’s “All Stars” journey, and forced the season’s remaining competitors to move through a series of stages, with the worst performing castaway being eliminated at the end of each stage. Unsurprisingly, Rob placed first in each and every stage of the challenge bar one, which he lost to his now-wife Amber Brkich.
The duo, whose legendary “Survivor” love story defined much of the 2004 season, found themselves as the final two standing with just one challenge remaining between them and the keys to the Chevy.
“I felt like I had it on lock for sure,” explained Mariano, seeing that the final stage involved a race up a rope ladder, across a rope bridge, and then down a flying fox to wear the keys dangled, prime for the taking.
Monty Brinton/CBSIn the end, Mariano backed up his confidence, emerging from the challenge as the winner of a brand-new truck. As a secondary reward, Rob got to take Amber on a romantic overnight getaway in the vehicle, visiting a drive-in movie theater to watch “Lord of the Flies.” The couple later took the Chevy off-road to engage in a bit of reckless driving.
“Probst was like, ‘You can take it into the water a little bit,’ and I took a hard turn into the water. And then when we got there, I took it right up, and the camera guy was right there and we stopped right in front of him. Probably a little bit reckless, but it made for a great one-take scene for sure,” added Mariano.
Mariano Reveals He and Amber Nearly Walked Away With Three Cars on the Season
The gifts kept coming for the now-married couple that day, as Probst led the pair around the corner where yet another vehicle, a Malibu Max, waited for the challenge’s runner-up, Amber. Rob similarly revealed to EW that the couple, who got engaged during the season’s live finale, nearly took yet another car before the credits rolled.
“They were also going to give a car away to the winner that season,” he explained. “We both got a car, and the winner’s going to get a car. But they kind of flipped the script on us…Whoever the sponsor was, I guess it was Chevrolet, at the last minute, they were like, ‘Oh, we don’t want just the two of them to get all of it.’ So last minute, live [during the reunion], they told Amber that she had to give the car away to someone because she already got a car.”
Amber similarly took home $1 million dollars that night as the season’s victor, with her newly-minted fiance Boston Rob sweeping up a second place finish.
CBS/Getty“Amber turns to me right after we’re engaged and she was like, ‘Who should I give it to?’ And I was like, ‘Give it to the person that you thought was the deciding vote.’ So she picked Shii Ann and they gave Shii Ann the car. She sent Amber some chocolates and wrote her a nice note and thanked her, but yeah…Amber didn’t get the [second] car because she won,” Mariano continued.
What Happened to Boston Rob’s Chevy Colorado?
With a wedding to plan and a surprise appearance on the cast of “The Amazing Race,” Mariano reported that he and Amber didn’t actually recieve their cars until nearly a year after “All-Stars” had wrapped.
“I think it was maybe 10 months later that they called and they were like, ‘You guys got to pick up these cars,” explained Rob.
CBSThe five-time player similarly revealed that he swapped the orange Colorado truck he’d driven on the show for a black model, while Amber selected a gold finish for her Malibu Max. He added that the new truck actually replaced his old car, the free Saturn Vue that he received as a cast member on “Survivor: Marquesas.”
“I drove the Saturn that Rosie O’Donnell gave me, and then when I got the Colorado, I gave the Saturn to my sister,” said Rob, adding that Amber similarly gifted her old car, a Mtsubishi Spider, to his parents after receiving her Malibu.
Boston Rob Argues He and Amber ‘Broke’ the ‘Survivor’ Car Curse
As to whether or not Boston Rob believes in the infamous “Survivor” car curse, the former champ told EW: “We broke the curse. Nobody wants to admit it, but we broke the curse back in Season 8. That’s a fact. When we got to the final two, after I won the last challenge, and I knew it was going to be Amber, I was like, ‘We broke the […] curse. One of us is going to win the show and we’re going to break the curse.’ It was broken in the last minute. They changed it because they liked the story of the curse better. So that’s the truth. You want the truth, come to Mariano. I’ll give you the truth.”
Now, two decades after winning his Chevy Colorado, Boston Rob is a globally renowned reality star, having appeared on series like “The Traitors” and “Deal or No Deal Island” in addition to his winning appearances on “Survivor” and “The Amazing Race.” At 49 years old, Mariano recently celebrated his 20-year wedding anniversary with Amber. Together the couple share four daughters: Lucia, Carina, Isabette and Adelina.
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Boston Rob Responds to the Infamous ‘Survivor’ Car Curse 20 Years After ‘All-Stars’