When Rob Antonson announced he was leaving the Survivior 51 island, Ori Jean-Charles, a personal trainer from Spring Valley, New York, questioned his reasons, and Rob hasn’t forgotten it.
Slamming Ori
Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, Rob took direct aim at Ori. “So I don’t blame them for thinking that way,” Rob said. “You know, Ori, I’m gonna take a shot at Ori right now because Ori plays off to be this, you know, big-time macho man that he’s a loyalty guy.”
He went further, calling Ori fake: “He’s fake. He’s someone that went behind the back in the confessionals and wanted to spit all his game when he had the shot.”
Next, he raged about social media, adding, “he’s making little videos taking shots at me, but then he sees me in public, and he’s all cool. I hate fake people. I just hate ’em. I want everyone to be real with me and upfront with me.”
A Pattern Emerges?
Rob’s clearly unimpressed with his former castmate on Survivor, but fans of the CBS show saw a pattern emerge with him. Remember, Rob Antonson previously tried voting for himself during Tribal Council, but production stepped in to tell him that wasn’t allowed.
He’d devised a scheme involving Eric Macksoud’s Shot in the Dark and a hidden immunity idol. After that plan failed, Rob eventually left the island, citing concerns about a cut on his foot.
Rob claimed he was worried about an infection. However, Dr. Barry examined his foot and found only a “tiny cut.” The Savu tribe didn’t buy the excuse at all.
Ori Called Out Rob
Before his departure, Ori wasn’t shy about calling out Rob either. Ori said on the show, “My mom named me Ori, not Stupid. You’ve been fine for the past 48 hours, but the day things don’t go your way, now, all of a sudden it’s a medical issue. My opinion is Rob is looking for an easy way out.”
Host Jeff Probst weighed in on Instagram. He wrote that Rob’s voluntary exit caught him off guard. Probst pointed out that Rob “never once asked for medical to check him out” until later.
“To be clear, that doesn’t mean he wasn’t in pain,” Probst wrote. “It only means we couldn’t find any medical evidence of anything wrong.”
Fans React
The drama started plenty of discussion on social media, with several Survivor fans criticizing Rob.
On the /r/survivor subreddit, one person wrote, “I think I would defend him if he at least was honest of his situation instead of trying to be a “hero” by voting himself out or blame it on some made up infection.”
Here are a few more reactions from the discussion:
- “Maybe I’d feel bad for him today if he owned it. Instead, in exit interviews he is still pretending that he had a potential “infection,” Disappointing to say the least.”
- “He’s a 40 year old man with 3 kids. If he can’t hack it on Survivor, admit it and don’t lie about some paper cut.”
- “I’ve seen worse cuts on Master Chef. It just seemed off because he came off as this macho type guy at the start. I think 10 or 15 years ago Jeff would have put his foot up Rob’s ass and told him to suck it up.”
Your thoughts? Join the discussion and then come back for more news, updates, and spoilers about Survivor Season 51.