Tom Sandoval knew it.
When Sandoval joined Season 3 of The Traitors, Bravo fans wasted no time speculating that the Vanderpump Rules star would be the first to go.
Given the fallout from his highly publicized affair with Rachel Leviss—ending his nine-year relationship with Ariana Madix—the internet was quick to predict an early exit.
Turns out, Sandoval shared those same fears.
“I was worried of that, actually,” he told PEOPLE. “I felt like people might bring that opinion of me into the castle and get me out right away.”
But instead of being eliminated early, Sandoval made it all the way to Episode 10 before being “murdered” in the game. His longevity on the Peacock reality series came down to a straightforward strategy, be nice and work hard.
“I felt like it was really important to just be nice, open-minded, build bonds with everyone, and prove my worth and my value, in a sense of working hard to win missions and make money for the collective group,” he explained. “And it worked, pretty much.”
Unlike some contestants, Sandoval had no desire to play as a Traitor.
“Oh, I could never have been a Traitor,” he admitted. “Absolutely not. I had no desire. In fact, I told production, ‘If you make me a Traitor, I think I’m just going to go home. I’ll quit.’ Because there’s no way I would be good at it. I would be so in my head the entire time.”
He felt the role was better suited for someone who actually wanted it.
“There were people out there who wanted to be Traitors, and I knew they’d be much better than I would,” he added.
“It’s like I told [host Alan Cumming]: ‘If you force somebody to play an instrument versus somebody who wants to play an instrument, the person who wants to play an instrument is going to be a lot better.’ I was never going to play that instrument well.”
While his Traitors journey may have come to an end, Sandoval proved that sometimes, just playing it nice can take you further than expected.
