Tom Sandoval Wanted to Be Entertaining on The Traitors: 'I View That as a Win'
"I really was all over the place,” the Bravo reality star admits now.
If one of Tom Sandoval’s goals was to show a different side of himself on The Traitors, he definitely accomplished it. The Bravolebrity entered the castle as a reality competition show novice, but he earned his stripes as one of Season 3’s most entertaining players by the time he left it — providing moments of levity with his lullaby singing, off-the-wall theories, and meme-able facial expressions. “Whether they're laughing with me or laughing at me, I just want everybody to be laughing and enjoying themselves. So, I view that as a win,” Sandoval said.
During a recent Zoom chat, the Vanderpump Rules alum discussed his experience on The Traitors, where his deep well of theories came from (like why he kept voting for Dolores), and his thoughts on why his reactions have become unexpected Season 3 highlights.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
What was your experience on The Traitors like?
It was awesome getting there to Scotland, walking into this big, beautiful castle, going to play the game where we're doing challenges — and it's like a whodunnit — exploring the different rooms and different groups of people, and making friends and partners. It was such a fun experience. I was so excited to be there.
What didn't we see in the episodes that you wished they showed?
It's very different watching the show when you know from the get-go who the Traitors are because as you're watching it back, it seems very obvious as to who's a Traitor and that you're missing all these big red flags. But when you're in that situation, obviously they don't show everything. You'll think, Wow, that person might be a Traitor. And then you start watching them more, and you pay less attention to the other people that are actual Traitors.
Early in the season, you briefly mentioned Danielle and Carolyn's names and concluded that they couldn't be Traitors. But by the end of your time in the castle, your suspicions grew about Danielle. How difficult was it keeping track?
It's difficult because everybody there had their top 3 that they think are Traitors. I thought Chrishell might be a Traitor initially, and then somebody does something that's like, hmm, and it just immediately focuses and distracts you from what you were thinking. But you always store it in the back of your mind for later.
You weren't shy about throwing out your theories. A lot of times you were off the mark, but sometimes you were reading the room correctly. Did you have your ride-or-dies? How difficult was it to identify people you could trust?
There were people that stayed in cliques, and there were people that sort of buddied up. I really was all over the place, and I tried to talk to everybody. It's funny, everybody had their conspiracies. They decided to show more of mine, which, I mean, is great, because it made it funny. I trusted Dylan, that he was a Faithful. But we were on very different pages. He 100% thought Rob was a Faithful. He was very suspicious of Robyn. He was suspicious of Bob the Drag Queen [when] there really wasn't any evidence against him. There was also Gabby, who he was dead set [on] as a Traitor.
Dolores and I had hit it off. We were actually really tight. And then I started seeing some of the things she was doing that looked very suspicious to me. So, then I started to think she was a Traitor. Everybody was all over the place. When you have 22 people — we had the largest cast ever — you don't have a lot to go off of, and the Traitors did a really good job of murdering people that didn't tie them to the murders except Boston Rob [when he] decided to go the other route of “Somebody's trying to frame me.” You can only use that so often.
Why do you think Danielle and Britney murdered you when they did?
In the order of who I thought was a Traitor, it would have been Danielle first, then Carolyn, and then Dolores. I was frustrated because you'd seen Danielle and Carolyn — Traitor on Traitor — argue at the roundtable, and they weren't tight in the castle. So that was another red flag. When Carolyn went out [in Episode 9], I was like, wow, now they can recruit [a new Traitor]. Now, "Dylan, me and you could literally wake up tomorrow as a Traitor." So, we had to go back to square one.
Was it because you were so set on Danielle?
Yeah, of course. And you know what? That was fine. Obviously, I would have loved to stay in the game, but I got frustrated. I ran my mouth, and I got killed for it. It's what happens!
Had you made it to breakfast, what would have been your next move?
I would have talked to everybody [to see] if I got a Traitor vibe from them. Now, looking in hindsight, it did seem pretty obvious that Danielle would have picked Britney as a fellow Traitor. So, yeah, maybe I should have kept my mouth shut. I think I would have been onto Britney.
Throughout the season, you and Dolores seemed to be mutually opposed. You consistently voted for each other at roundtables. Can you explain your thinking?
The thing about Dolores is she's so nice. I felt like she got off the boat first, and that's something she would do if she was a Traitor. She would also not be worried about getting shields. She seemed to not care about getting shields. She also never seemed to be nervous or care about getting murdered. And the fact that she didn't reveal that Bob [the Drag Queen] had said to her that he didn't believe in God. I was like, why are you telling us this after the fact? Did you want to see how the roundtable turned out? That would have been very valuable information. Also, one night before we went to bed, she said, "Tom, I think this is going to be your last night." And I found myself almost begging for her not to murder me. There were a lot of things that, to me, seemed [odd]. This is what happens when you start thinking somebody might be a Traitor. You start ignoring other things and start investigating them more, then all of a sudden, you find yourself down a little bit of a rabbit hole.
Many of your reactions became episode highlights. In Episode 8, you misspoke at the roundtable when you said that “girls make better cheaters than guys because they have better social skills." You quickly clarified that you meant to say that "women make better Traitors." Did that moment surprise even yourself?
First of all, it was hard to sleep at night. Nobody got a lot of sleep. That challenge was the dollhouse challenge, and I was very exhausted. I mean, I'm sitting there with my hand on my face, and I just was like, I don't know. I didn't even realize that I said that. And low-key, I did look at, like, well, the Traitors are cheating. They're cheating the game, you know? I didn't even realize I said it, and I was like, "What? What?" Like, I was so out of it. [Laughs] I never wanted to hide more in my life. I was like, "Can we please take five? I need to go put myself in a timeout."
Speaking of the lullaby mission, it felt like you truly shined and that you unlocked a new skill. Is singing a path you want to go down?
[Laughs] A skill? I don't know if I would call it a skill, but I think I just felt like I had to step up because the people that I was with were like, “First of all, I want to find the shield. Second of all, I don't really want to do this in front of cameras.”
Who are you rooting for now?
I'm just rooting for the Faithfuls, whether it's Dolores, Dylan, Ivar, [or] Gabby. I just want the Faithfuls to win.
Would you want to be on The Traitors again?
Of course. I would love to do The Traitors again, and I would love to do more shows like this. They're so much fun. I really feel like I'm in my element.
Stream the Season 3 finale of The Traitors on Thursday at 9p ET on Peacock.
