Southern Charm‘s Austen Kroll has a hot take about how his friend Craig Conover will fare on The Traitors.
“I think that Craig being a Traitor would be too on the nose,” Austen, 39, told Us in an exclusive interview with costar Salley Carson. “So I think that he’s a Faithful, but the Traitors are like, ‘We’ve got to get rid of this guy, because he’s onto us.’”
Austen said it will be “interesting” to see how the season plays out. “If Craig is onto them, and then they get rid of him too quick, then [it’s] like, ‘OK, well, it’s obviously who he thought it was.’ So, I think Craig’s going to be good at it. … Like, annoyingly good at it.”
Salley, 31, hinted Craig’s success in the Traitors castle “could go either way,” adding, “He’s going to be either really, really, really bad or really good.”
Austen went on to admit there was one factor that could contribute to Craig’s downfall. “I think that Craig might go in being like, ‘I want to be the prom king of this thing,’” he joked. “And that’s not what you should be doing.”
Salley pointed out that season 4 winner and Traitor Rob Rausch — who had runner-up Maura Higgins convinced he was a Faithful until a gut-wrenching finale betrayal — had a similar approach.
“If [Craig] was chosen to be a Traitor, I think that everyone would know,” she told Us, while Austen quipped, “I don’t know, man. He’s a really good liar.”
Craig, 37, was announced as part of the season 6 Traitors cast last month along with Bronwyn Newport, Cody Simpson, Gizelle Bryant, Kristin Chenoweth, Taylor Hale and more stars. The hit Peacock series is set to return in early 2027.
According to Austen, Craig was already overseas in Scotland before any of the Southern Charm cast could offer him advice for the competition.
“He was in the castle and then we found out,” Austen told Us, teasing, “Craig kind of moves like that.”
He and Salley would likely have a harder time keeping their casting a secret. “If I got the call, I’d be calling [him] in five seconds,” Salley quipped.
Before fans see whether Craig will survive murders and banishments, they’ll catch up with his life in Charleston, South Carolina, when Southern Charm returns to Bravo next month. Austen told Us the pair worked hard to get their friendship back on track after experiencing a rough patch.
“I just wiped the slate clean after the reunion last year, because it was like, ‘This is the only way to move forward,’” he explained.
Southern Charm season 12 premieres on Bravo Thursday, November 12, at 9 p.m. ET. Stream new episodes the next day on Peacock.
