Carolyn Wiger Condemns “Gross” Danielle Reyes Online Hate Following Heartbreaking ‘Traitors’ Exit
The Traitors contestants underestimated Carolyn Wiger.
Joining season three of Peacock’s award-winning competition series as a Traitor, the 38-year-old Survivor fan favorite quickly won over the hearts of Traitors fans as well. Wiger was selected to join the murderous crew alongside Big Brother legend Danielle Reyes and RuPaul’s Drag Race winner Bob the Drag Queen. The trio was eventually joined by one of Survivor’s greatest, Boston Rob Mariano.
It only took four episodes for the titular Traitors to turn on one another; Mariano took a comment Bob the Drag Queen made as an attempt to push suspicion in Mariano’s direction, so the 49-year-old orchestrated a nearly full cast turn on the Drag Race alum.
That one comment, and the subsequent banishment, set off a season of consistent Traitor-on-Traitor violence. Both Wiger and Reyes voted out Bob the Drag Queen, and they later voted off Mariano just three episodes later when suspicion went in his direction. Wiger was extremely vocal about her distrust of Reyes, who did ultimately led to her banishment. The Survivor star even posted a poem she wrote about her fellow Traitor in her journal – a moment she urges was “just kind of funny” and not serious.
Below, Wiger discusses the hate Reyes has been receiving, how getting eliminated “broke [her] dang heart” and who she hopes wins it all.
We have to start on the poem that you posted out from your journal on Instagram. Why did you want to share it? It seemed to be in jest. Some people seemed to be taking it maybe a little seriously.
Are they? OK. People have been asking me about this, and I don’t read a ton of stuff and I don’t see, “Well, how is it received?” I have no idea. My friend Reed Kelly, who’s played Survivor [with me] was like, “Carolyn, it’s half and half.” I’m like, oh, OK. Well, I didn’t think it was bad. I thought it was just kind of funny.
Some people took it seriously, but I assumed that wasn’t the intent.
No, and at the same time, too… Again, I don’t read enough stuff online. I truly don’t. During Survivor, with all the people trying to diagnose me, call me crazy, call me all these names, why do I want to read that crap? I don’t search my name and see what people think. I need to be OK with the stuff that I say and what I post. Sometimes it’s a hit and sometimes it’s a miss. I certainly am not going to be like, “Well, what’s OK to [post] now?” I didn’t think it was bad. But also, knowing now that they’re getting so, so much hate, and I don’t think that’s ever OK. I will say first and foremost, I don’t need to pour salt in the wound or keep this going. I thought it was silly. I think it’s one thing to make fun of people’s gameplay or theatrics or whatever, but not the personal attacks. Gross. I wouldn’t even feel good doing that, and I didn’t think I was doing that. So I apologize if it came off like that because again, I know what it’s like to be called mentally ill, say my face looks like it had a stroke, “Why is she like that?” “She’s nuts,” and all that crap. [There’s] a difference between personal attack.
Many contestants that have been banished or murdered said they never saw you coming. As a game player, how does it feel to know that? Up until the last episode, it was so far out of people’s minds at that point.
Then it’s like, seriously… Again, she’s [Danielle] doing a great job. I’m not… She got me at the end of the day. Yeah, I truly did see a path. I thought, “I’m winning this,” and I never feel like that, but I did. It broke my dang heart. It did. Then seeing that back and just watching the episode, oh, it did. It broke my heart. At the end of the day, I have to tell myself that this is a game, but it hurts when I play these games as myself. Seeing that nobody suspected me. But then the overwhelming theme, watching those exit videos. The overwhelming theme as well, “I completely overlooked her [Carolyn].” I think Chrishell said specifically, “A lot of us underestimated her or overlooked her or something [like that].”
Boston Rob’s decision to go after Bob the Drag Queen set off a bit of a domino effect with all of the Traitors. Rob specifically said that he would’ve worked with you until the end or until you made it. What was going through your head when it was the three of you (Rob and Danielle)? How do you play a game like that?
It sucks. I will own that. I was so intimidated by Rob, I was. There ain’t no way this person is going to be even working with me. Sorry, I have seen his seasons, and I’m like, I don’t want to be his Phillip [Sheppard, of Survivor]. I don’t want to be. That’s what I would think of. You see it on the episode, with Bob the Drag Queen, he doesn’t say Rob’s name specifically, but he clearly is not helping. He’s throwing him under the bus. I never even heard that. At the time I’m like, “It’s just about ego and blah, blah, blah.” Watching it back, it’s like, oh crap. He did. He was trying to work as a team. Truly, at the beginning, I see this, and even by not putting me in the coffin. They were trying to put me in the damn coffin.
I was like, nope, I’m not working with him. I don’t trust him. The turn with that came when Danielle then was trying to throw me under the bus, and that’s when I’m like, oh shit. I need him. It’s not all clearly shown, but I wrote him a poem. I didn’t have time to read it to him, but I did not want him gone. I was like, I need this person to help me with her. Truly, that’s what I thought. Did I trust him a hundred percent? No, of course not. But I knew that I needed him to help. It sucks. I don’t like people judging me. He’s just so incredible as far as even a player and even honestly as a person, as a human. I did – I don’t like it when people judge me, and I 100 percent judged him, but he’s scary. Watching him, I was like, “Oh my gosh.” It’s literally an art form. I’m not going to lie. I’m looking at him and I’m like, I wish I could sound like you. It’s true, but it was hard to believe that Boston Rob would want to work with me. That’s my own personal shit.
You don’t go through Survivor that many times without being very good.
Also just feeling like Boston Rob wouldn’t want to work with someone like me. He’s too Boston Rob. Like I said, after the Bob the Drag Queen thing, it was like, nope. Watching it back, I get why he did that. Anyone who’s watching any of his seasons, you come for him like that. Was it too soon? Who knows? But it really was justified, watching him back.
Now that you are out of the game, who are you rooting for to win?
Tom [Sandoval] and Gabby [Windey].
What do you hope that people who only knew you from your time on Survivor got got out of seeing you in a light or a new way? Do you hope that they got something out of that?
Beyond the game and all the BS of what you didn’t see. What I always, after these games, is the overwhelming amount of support that I get from people who just feel a little bit different, feel like they don’t fit in, and who can relate to experiences that I’ve been [through]. That’s why I do what I do. At the end of the day, I’m not ever going to talk like Boston Rob, and that’s OK. I’m not ever going to be this perfectly… I’m impulsive, I’m emotional. I put it all out there. I’m a little weird. I’m a lot weird. The amount of people who can say, “Hey, I’ve been there too,” or “I get it,” or “Can you help me in this situation?” “I finally feel heard,” that’s worth it to me. Not playing. Who gives a shit? No, it’s the people and it’s those human moments.
