In a season full of legendary gamers, the one that almost made it to the end of “The Traitors” season three without being murdered or banished wasn’t Boston Rob. It wasn’t “Big Brother” winner Derrick Levasseur or three-time “The Challenge” winner Wes Bergmann. In something of a last-minute surprise, it was none other than “Big Brother” veteran Britney Haynes. And, fair warning, major spoilers are ahead if you still haven’t watched the season finale of the Peacock breakout.
READ MORE: Alan Cumming says ‘The Traitors’ is too big a production for your conspiracy theories [Interview]
Speaking To The Playlist right after the finale and reunion dropped last week, Haynes admitted she was frustrated it took so long for her to be chosen as a Traitor on the show. That didn’t happen till her fellow “Big Brother” competitor, Danielle Reyes, gave her an ultimatum to join her or be murdered during the second to last episode. Reyes had been a Traitor since the beginning, but she neededn’t have worried. Haynes was dying to be in the turret and have some “control” over what was going on. She actually couldn’t believe so many of her fellow Faithfuls never wanted the pressure of being a Traitor.
“I thought that everyone did! People in the castle would be like, ‘No, I asked to be a Faithful.’ And I’m like, ‘Me too,’ but I didn’t believe them,” Haynes recalls. “And then I watched the show, and I’m like, ‘Oh my God, you really asked to be a Faithful. Why would you do that?’ It blew my mind that people really want to be a Faithful. Absolutely mind-boggling. No, I, of course, wanted to be a Traitor really bad.”
Haynes didn’t end up with the prize money. She was banished in a roundtable vote right before the final four had their last, firepit vote. In our conversation, she reflects on how she knew she was done for the minute she showed up for breakfast, the alliances that didn’t make the edit, how rough the social media reaction has been for some of her co-stars, whether she should have gone after Dylan at the end or someone else, and, oh, yes, that…reunion.
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The Playlist: Being on the show is different from actually watching it. What was your takeaway from the reunion last night?
Britney Taylor: Gosh, I don’t know. To be honest with you. I thought it was kind of boring. Is that rude? I thought it was boring in person, and I thought it was boring rewatching it. There were literally times where I was like, “It’s my bedtime. It’s past my bedtime. I’m tired.” It wasn’t that crazy. Which I guess is good if you’re like, “Oh, we should all get along.” Yes, I totally agree. However, if I’m just a viewer watching television, it was a little less spicy maybe than they had hoped it would be my opinion.
Was this the sort of cast that left the drama in Scotland when it was over? Did anyone have lingering hurt feelings?
Oh, I think people have lingering hurt feelings, but I think that the toxicity of the social media environment is so harsh and crazy that people just want to be done with it because it’s not worth it. It’s not worth it to go on and air your side and air your grievances because you’re going to get so much crap for it. People were just, I think, beat down and exhausted by defending their position all season, and they just didn’t want to deal with the onslaught of regurgitating the same things that they’ve already said, the same feelings they’ve already had, and then dealing with the backlash to it because there is very real aggressive backlash, I think, for everybody. Frankly, I don’t think anybody is exempt from it.
When you’re on a show like “Big Brother,” you’re in the Big Brother house, you’re not seeing everything that’s going online. You’re not getting the daily or weekly reaction, but you come out of it, and it can be, in theory, a deluge. Back then, there were message boards and blogs. Is this much more intense than that? Did this feel worse?
The thing about [“Big Brother”] is, yes, it’s very intense, but it’s already over, so it’s already yesterday’s news. Whereas in the case of this, first of all, you have to wait eight months for it to air, and then you have to relive it in real time, witnessing what is left out of the edit, witnessing what was said about you that you didn’t know. You’re learning at the same time. It’s a completely, completely different thing. It’s maybe more intense when you get off a “Big Brother” because all of a sudden it’s all at once. However, it also passes more quickly. This was very much more like a slow-boil soup or drawn out. And even for me, especially early on, all of the criticism against me was just that I wasn’t even on the show. And I’m like, “I mean, I don’t know what to tell you. I feel like I was there. Pretty sure I was there. I don’t know.” But then it escalates as time goes on.
I remember last season, John Bercow, the head of the former Speaker of the British House of Commons, was sort of cut out of the edit. All the other contestants said he was the loudest person at every round table, but in the edit, you never saw it. Was there anything significant missing from season three when you watched the final episodes?
It wasn’t like that for me. I wasn’t super vocal at the round table strategically. I wanted to be with the majority as much as possible. I was never going to stick my neck out at the round table to be against the majority or to bring up a brand new argument and make a brand new enemy. That was definitely not what I was going to do. But I think that this show just inherently relies a lot less on commentary. And commentary is where I would really feel like I could let loose [ and vocalize my opinions because it’s safe. I’m in the privacy of the diary room [like on “Big Brother”], if you will, and this is where I can really let loose. And so that was really kind of where I would go crazy. Not in the castle. And just the way that the show works. I mean, a mass majority of the show is castle footage. It’s not commentary footage, it’s not diary room footage. They rely very little on diary room narration and more so on what you actually see unfolding. And so that just is kind of different than how I operate in the game. And so I think that for me, that’s where it got lost. I guess his perspective is like, “Oh, I was really loud, and you didn’t show it”. Not so much for me. I wasn’t super loud at the banishment table unless I had to be, unless you were coming after me. I tried to really kind of just fade into the background. But yeah, I think that I’m just more colorful and commentary, and it’s just not like a commentary-heavy show.
Did you make friends or have any other maybe alliances than were shown on screen? I just saw that Dylan and Dolores did an interview where they talked about how Dylan and Caroline were friends during production, and I’m like, “I don’t remember that,” and I watched every episode.
It’s so hard with that because everybody’s like, “Huh, what?” Because if you don’t see it happening on your screen…the Dylan and Carolyn one, it actually goes, it’s Dylan, Carolyn Ivar, and who am I missing, Danielle? They were all in the car together on day one. That’s a car alliance; that’s an arrive at the castle alliance. And so a lot of people were [unaware of] Ivar and Danielle, but because of that alliance they had on day one, he was one of her closest people. Anyway, yes, I worked out the gate to get in with the Housewives, and then they all died. But I was trying to work with Ayan. I was trying to work with Dorinda, and then they just all got killed. So that was a totally moot point. But I was also close with Chrishelle. Chrishelle was someone who had actually seen “Big Brother” and was a “Big Brother” fan, so she was so sweet to me. So just very, very genuine and very nice to me always from day one. And so I bonded with her, and she was also a Bambi, so I knew that she also had other alliances, but she is someone that I would work with. And then I worked with Dolores too, a little bit. Not like number one person, but she and I would also work together. And then I was working with Danielle, and I was working with Carolyn too, a little. It’s so funny because it’s not black and white who you’re working with. You’re working with different people by the day and on different varying levels, you know what I mean? So you can kind of say like, “Oh, well, if I had a couple of conversations with this person, it’s in flux.” It’s not as black and white as just you were or you weren’t.
Before you went to Scotland, did you talk to your fellow “Big Brother” contestants who have been on previous seasons of “The Traitors”?
I did, yeah, for advice. I did. I did. However, I will say once I was established as a Faithful, it was kind of like a moot point because you’re just holding on for dear life. There is no strategy to being a Faithful. I did talk to Rachel [Reilly], to Janelle [Pierzina], to Dan [Gheesling], and they all had little tips for me, little bits of advice for me, but then being appointed a Faithful, it’s like, “What are you going to do?” You’re going to go to bed and hope you don’t get murdered.
Did you want to be a Traitor from the beginning?
I did. And by the way, I thought that everyone did! People in the castle would be like, “No, I asked to be a Faithful.” And I’m like, “Me too,” but I didn’t believe them. And then I watched the show and I’m like, “Oh my God, you really asked to be a Faithful. Why would you do that?” It blew my mind that people really want to be a Faithful. Absolutely mind-boggling. No, I, of course, wanted to be a Traitor really bad. That was the second time that I lost. The first time was when I really lost. But the second time is the day I was made a Faithful. That was a big L for me.
But you made it to the end. You eventually became a Traitor. You were this close to winning. Are you happy with your run?
I’m very, very grateful for it. A big part of me felt very indebted to Danielle for frankly keeping me around as long as I was. But it’s so hard as a Faithful, you’re not in any control. You really have so little control over the way that the game goes. You can try to suck up to this person or that person, and maybe it works, maybe it doesn’t, but you’re in very, very little control. You’re in control when you’re a Traitor. That’s your game to lose. And I don’t really feel that way about being a Faithful, if I’m honest.
Do you regret going after Dylan at the end? Do you think you should have targeted someone else instead?
I thought that the most compelling evidence I had was definitely against Dylan, so it actually kind of worked out for me that he was going after me because then it was like tit for tat and almost any argument that he had against me, I could flip mirror on him and switch it back to him. No, I think that I had more evidence against Dylan than anybody else because he also worked in very close proximity with Danielle. So, if he was hanging his argument on the fact that I might be a Danielle recruit, I could say the exact same thing against him. So I don’t think that that was a mistake. I think that was my best shot. Frankly, it just wasn’t good enough. But I think it was my best chance.
When you’re at the roundtable at the end, did you feel like you had a shot to convince them?
I felt like I was screwed literally the whole day, which made the whole entire day that much more miserable. [We’re on the challenge and it’s like,} “Let’s go. Where is it on the map? I dunno. Let’s go to the unicorn for it.” And I’m like, “You’re all about to banish me. I hate this. This is awful.” The writing was on the wall to me when I stepped into the breakfast table. I could just sense that I was the outcast, and it made everything that I did that day that much worse.
I know that they warn you before you go on the show, “Hey, we may do some things that are dangerous or whatever,” but the fact you all were hung from a helicopter has somehow gotten lost since the finale aired.
Yeah, no one even cares.
Could you not say no? What would happen?
No. Let me break it down for you one step further. This is a story I told on my Patreon. When we showed up to get attached via one carabiner to the helicopter, they put two microphones on me in case one mic went out. And then I look at the helicopter, and I see one rope. So somebody explained to me why I need two microphones because one of those microphones might be faulty, but you only need to dangle me from one rope. There’s not a backup rope. There’s not an “in case of emergency” rope. I don’t have a parachute, but we’re just going to count on this one carabiner and this one rope on the helicopter. Yet I need to wear two microphones. Someone make it make sense for me. Anyone?

Yeah, I don’t get it. Also, to be honest, and my friends also don’t understand this either, does the money matter? Do people care about winning the challenges?
I could have cared less about the money because I never truly believed that I was going to win. So to me, the money was never important. Earlier in the game, I always went for safety. If safety was an option, that’s what I’m going for. And then even later in the game when I’m close to the end, I’m like, not that I wouldn’t love money. Listen, I love money. Money’s the best, but you’ve got to make it there before it’s yours. So, I would always prioritize whatever the bigger goal was outside of the money ahead of how many actual gold coins I contributed to the pot.
Are there any “Big Brother” friends or veterans that you would love to see on “Traitors” season 4?
There’s so many, and I always feel like I’m going to leave someone out and then feel really, really bad because, frankly, it’s a very popular show, and I know people want to do it. People want to go play “Traitors.” And I hate to forget someone’s name whenever I get asked this, but I always say Frankie Grande because he’s a very larger-than-life. If these are the kind of characters you like to watch on your television that are just crazy over the top, blah, blah, blah, Frankie Grande fits the bill. He’s very dramatic and over the top. So I think that he would be great. And then, I mean, there’s just so many, but I love all of the “Reindeer Games’ people that you know, why not get “Reindeer Games” 3.0 in here. All of the cast of “Reindeer Games” I think would be great on the show. Truly, the “Big Brother” Pool is so deep and wide. I think that you’re going to have a good outcome pretty much no matter who shows up to represent, to be honest.
“The Traitors” season 3 is available to stream on Peacock.