The &34;Top Chef&34; host also reveals that she actually did suspect the &34;Love Island&34; star as a Traitor, despite how the edit made it seem. Kristen Kish explains why Rob Rausch had her fooled on The Traitors: 'Rob had a plan' The &34;Top Chef&34; host also reveals that she actually did suspect the &34;Love Island&34; star as a Traitor, despite how the edit made it seem. By Sydney Bucksbaum :maxbytes(150000):stripicc()/headshotb5dc24df8d5d43d1a16c9ce0e0383119.jpg) Sydney Bucksbaum Sydney Bucksbaum is a staff writer at . She has been working at EW since 2019 and is a published author.

The "Top Chef" host also reveals that she actually did suspect the "Love Island" star as a Traitor, despite how the edit made it seem.

Kristen Kish explains why Rob Rausch had her fooled on The Traitors:* *'Rob had a plan'

The "Top Chef" host also reveals that she actually did suspect the "Love Island" star as a Traitor, despite how the edit made it seem.

By Sydney Bucksbaum

Sydney Bucksbaum

Sydney Bucksbaum is a staff writer at **. She has been working at EW since 2019 and is a published author. Her work has previously appeared in *TV Guide Magazine*, E! News/E! Online, *The Hollywood Reporter*, Mashable, Bustle, IGN, DCComics.com, Inverse, *The Daily Northwestern*, and more.

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February 20, 2026 3:48 p.m. ET

Kristen Kish on 'The Traitors'. Credit:

**This article contains spoilers for *The Traitors* season 4, episode 10, "Do You Know the Enemy?"**

Kristen Kish is learning a lot about her time on *The Traitors* after the fact by watching Rob Rausch dominate the game in secret.

While the *Top Chef *host had no idea just how brilliantly Rob was steering the game as a Traitor during filming, she now tells ** how "eye-opening" it's been watching the episodes on TV.

"It's crazy," Kristen says about the *Love Island *alum's Traitor gameplay. "Of course, he wasn't going to show us that side of him, but it's really interesting to watch it play out and hear all of the things that he's doing."

But she also reveals that she wasn't as blind to his secret moves in the Turret as it appears in the episodes. Below, Kristen explains how she actually did suspect Rob — along with everybody, except for Mark Ballas — of being a Traitor. But she also admits how he had her fooled during filming, right up she was murdered by him and Eric Nam in this week's episode.

Plus, Kristen reveals why the jack-in-the-box challenge wasn't as risky for the Traitors as it seemed on TV. All that and more in EW's interview below.**

Kristen Kish and Mark Ballas on 'The Traitors'.

**: You were so close to making it to the end as the official Faithful of the Faithfuls. Why do you think you were murdered? **

**KRISTEN KISH: **I think there are a few things. Now, having watched the season back, having all the information, I think [there are] two things. Obviously, my play at Eric played very heavily into it, but I also believe that Rob had a plan many, many days or episodes or weeks ago, that he was never going to take me to the end anyways.

I think that it was the natural progression of my time, knowing how he was playing his game and manipulating and puppeteering the whole thing. I think it was my time. If it wasn't this time with me going after Eric, it was 100 percent going to be the next day. There was no way he was going to take me to that fire.

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**Do you regret confronting Eric with your suspicions, knowing you could have maybe lasted one more night if you hadn't?**

Not one ounce. No. Sometimes the viewers aren't privy to relationships that are being formed personally, and it felt maybe a little bit out of the blue. I've been really quiet and then all of a sudden I throw all my cards at Eric and I'm like, "Tell me what's wrong with you." But everything leading up to that, him and I had such a great banter, a great relationship — we still do — and we had a dialogue that was consistent all the way through.

If, all of a sudden, one of your friends changed and they stopped talking to you, you'd be like, "What's up? Tell me why are you being so weird." That's exactly what led up to that point. If that were somebody else that I hadn't developed a friendship with, I don't know if I would've done it that way. But with him I was just like, "Dude, you're acting so weird right now. What gives?"

Kristen Kish on 'The Traitors'.

**What did you think of how Mark didn't do anything substantial — at least, not yet — with the information you gave him about Eric?**

I can't fault him. We didn't do anything with the information Candiace gave us in the castle. There are so many things obvious to the Traitors only, and the audience at home has all the information. I can't fault him for not listening and going after [Eric], because in the castle you are dealing with so many other conversations that are building upon day after day after day, and sometimes all of a sudden one person just throws something at you. You're like, "No, it's this person." If all of a sudden you have whiplash and you go over here, sometimes you've got to follow the thread that's already been laid.

In Mark's case, he was following a lead that was already in play, that was already in conversation. And had he just been like, "But she said this," then he's trying to make the whole castle turn on a new plan. And sometimes when you do that, it doesn't bode well for you. Sometimes you've got to walk before you can run. You've got to make sure you follow the thread that was already laid.

**It felt like you died in vain because no one went after Eric in this episode, after you handed Mark the smoking gun of irrefutable evidence.**

[*Laughs*] I can understand where, as a viewer, that is so frustrating. It *is* so frustrating, but it's complicated in there sometimes.

Kristen Kish on 'The Traitors'.

**When that mini Traitor popped out from the jack-in-the-box, were you surprised? Were you expecting it? How were you feeling in that moment?**

I was already, in my mind, prepared for it to be me. I didn't know that I was shortlisted other times, that wasn't information that I was given, so knowing that I had a 25 percent chance of going home, I was like, "Yeah, I'm prepared for it. It is what it is."

There's also this place where I was, just personally, in the competition, where I had made it so much farther than what I ever thought I was going to make it. And I was like, "You know what? I'm good. No matter what happens, I am good and I feel really happy with having gotten this far." And so I was at peace for so many different reasons, both personally and also in the game.

**Aside from Eric, who else did you think was a Traitor?**

Everybody. With the exception of Mark. In my brain, the second I stepped out of that car [from day one], I'm assuming everybody's a Traitor. That is how I'm going to manage relationships and build rapport and make sure that everyone thinks that I trust them and get them to trust me. If I suspect only certain people are Traitors and certain people are Faithfuls, you're going to interact with them differently and you could get burned because of that. My guard was up on everybody from day one, healthy suspicion on every single person.

Obviously there's a part where I was like, "There's no way Rob can be a Traitor." I said that to so many people about so many people, because sometimes that's how you have to play the game. Make sure that no one thinks that you think that they're a Traitor, and who you say it to, because there's nothing that spreads faster than a suspicion on somebody in that castle. It is like wildfire and it can just take off like that. If suspicions can run like that, a compliment surely can go very far. "Oh, I don't think you're a Traitor." That will just spread everywhere depending on who you tell.

Colton Underwood, Rob Rausch, and Eric Nam on 'The Traitors'.

Euan Cherry/PEACOCK

**I'm really glad that you had brought that up. Because it wasn't just you — we've seen a couple other people also saying, "There's no way it's Rob. It can't be Rob." How did he have so many people fooled? What was the general feeling in the castle about Rob? **

I think everyone had their reasons. Do I think he was never suspected? No. I think what happened is no one stuck their neck out and said it. Well, with the exception of Candiace, obviously being a Traitor and knowing, but no one really stuck their neck out. I always wanted to go off of something that I could defend, saying like, "I think it's you because I had this interaction with you that I feel is suspicious."

Because if you go into the Roundtable or anywhere else and you start throwing suspicions around and people are like, "Well, why?" And for me, if I didn't have a good why, I wasn't going to throw their name out until I got my why. Rob, now knowing his game, he was very consistent, with the exception of now watching back this last episode on the carousel where I feel like his mask dropped.

I like to think that I would've clocked that in the way that I clocked Eric's behavioral change, where I was like, "Wow, that's the first time I'm seeing him — on TV, in the edit, and also from what I experienced in the castle — where his personality shifted. He got mad and I was like, "Interesting."

So I don't know what everyone else's reasons are, but the consistency, which is the thing that I looked for in everybody, was the thing that I feel like he's exactly who he was from day one to whenever. I will say that watching him in his interviews has been very eye-opening. I was like, "Excuse me? That's what you're doing?" It's crazy. Of course, he wasn't going to show us that side of him, but it's really interesting to watch it play out and hear all of the things that he's doing.

Rob Rausch on 'The Traitors'.

***Love Island* Rob is definitely coming out. **

See, I never watched *Love Island!* I had no idea who this guy was. He's like a 27-year-old child. I still don't know how he is on *Love Island*. People are like, "Didn't you watch *Love Island*?" No, I don't. But now, maybe I do have to go back and watch him.

**When Rob and Eric were getting in and out of their jack-in-the-boxes during the last challenge, could you hear anything? Or were all those sound effects added in later?**

In the boxes, they had very loud music playing, to keep the game fair. Because then if you were close to Eric or Rob, certainly maybe you could have heard something. To keep the game fair, they played very, very, very loud carnival creepy music in all of the boxes individually. So you couldn't hear anything. You couldn't even hear your own thoughts. Honestly, if I sneezed, I couldn't even hear myself sneeze. The music was just so loud in those boxes and it was just echoing off the non-insulated walls.

*This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.*

***Want to be kept up with all things Survivor? Dig deep and sign up for 's free Survivor Weekly newsletter to have all the latest news, interviews, and commentary sent right to your inbox. ***

******New episodes of *The Traitors* release Thursdays on Peacock.

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Original Article on Source

Source: "EW Reality"

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Source: Reality

Published: February 21, 2026 at 07:57AM on Source: MARIO MAG

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