Summary

The Traitors
is a reality game show inspired by Dutch series
De Verraders
, where contestants must survive to win a grand prize.
Host Alan Cumming leads 22 celebrity contestants in a Scottish castle, with intrigue, scheming, and murder at every turn in the game. Cumming, star Kate Chastain, and the producers discussed making the show.
Season 3 of
The Traitors
is in the works, with a focus on casting celebrities and maintaining the unpredictable nature of the show.

Murder is the name of the game on The Traitors, a reality game show where “The Faithful” must try and survive to the end in their effort to win a share of the grand prize. Similar to the party game Mafia, The Traitors finds its roots in the Dutch series De Verraders, which premiered in 2021. It was such an instant success that it was immediately remade in the US, UK, Australia, and New Zealand. The United States version of The Traitors premiered on Peacock in January 2023, and is currently streaming its second season, with a third season already commissioned.

Alan Cumming hosts the group of 22 celebrity contestants in a remote castle in the Scottish Highlands, where the former reality television stars must work together to banish the Traitors in their midst. Identified to the audience in the first episode, The Traitors then work to keep their identities hidden, picking a new “murder victim” each night, hoping to avoid being banished by The Faithful and surviving until the end of the game. At the end, if only The Faithful remain, they split the grand prize. However, if there’s one Traitor left in their midst, that person claims the entire prize. Intrigue and scheming are rife in a game where every contestant is out for themselves.

At this year’s TCA Winter Tour, host and producer Alan Cumming, cast member Kate Chastain, and executive producers Stephen Lambert and Sam Rees-Jones sat down to discuss the intrigue, fashion, and setting of The Traitors.

Casting Celebrities or Civilians
The Traitors (US) Release Date January 12, 2023 Cast Alan Cumming , Kate Chastain , Cirie Fields , Cody Calafiore , Dan Gheesling , Phaedra Parks Seasons 2 Studio Peacock Creator Marc Pos and Jasper Hoogendoorn

Question: You guys started with civilians and celebrities, and now you’ve committed to celebrities, it seems, while the other countries are still doing civilians. Can you guys talk about the difference between having the two different types of people as contestants and why you’ve committed to celebrities?

Stephen Lambert: Well, I mean, to correct you, actually, the original Dutch version is all with celebrities. So, different countries do it different ways. We initially thought we would do civilians here in the States. But then there was a change of view towards the end of the preparation period for the first season, and we decided to have people who were well-known as a result of mostly being on other reality shows and had achieved fame.

It’s a very, very crowded market here, and NBC and Peacock all thought that it would be helpful in terms of the profile of a new show to have those people that were well-known. And we thought it worked. I mean, to be honest, the mix didn’t seem to be the best thing. It felt slightly awkward. So, for the second season, we went all celebrities.

Question: You have your greenlight for season three, congratulations. What kind of changes, if any, are you thinking about making for the casting of season three? And are you getting people already coming up to you and saying, “I would love to be a part of this?”

Sam Rees-Jones: I mean the bar is set pretty high, I think, with season two. The show’s only as good as its cast. And the former, and both, I think are brilliant. So, the bar is set very high. We have started casting already. It’s very early days, but we’re excited with where it’ll go and who will join. The thing that I love most about season two is the jigsaw, the variety that we had. And that’s the representation, the sort of different personalities, the different voices, and that’s one thing we want to make sure that we do again in season three.

Alan Cumming: And I have to stop looking at my DMs on Instagram because there’s so many people asking me if I can get them into the show.

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Question: Is it going to continue to be all reality stars or are you going to go back to a mix? And, also, are you trying to cast more from reality competition shows or did you find that the mix of having housewives and other reality stars thrown in worked this season?

Sam Rees-Jones: I think it’s too early days at the minute. I think the mix worked really well. I mean, I love the fish out of water thing. I love the Bravo cast. I love them all interacting, […] so I think nothing’s off the table. Who would’ve thought that we’d have a former politician from the UK in the same castle as a boxing heavyweight champion? I think that the beauty of The Traitors, is that anyone can join from any sort of walk of life. I think that’s brilliant. And to see how Kate Chastain plays it against a Big Brother strategy person is fascinating. And they all pull different things and have different strengths that they bring into the game.

Alan Cumming: And I thought that it was funny, everyone was saying, ‘Oh, those are the gamers, and we have the housewives — but, actually, the thing about the show is that […] it’s a different beast. And so, it doesn’t really matter that you have one Big Brother, because it’s actually a different thing. And it brings out different qualities in people.

Stephen Lambert: Exactly. It’s not a popularity contest. So many of those other shows, the competition reality shows are, in the end, popularity competitions.

Kate Chastain Is the Agent of Chaos
NBC Universal

Question: Kate, are you essentially the reality TV version of Jennifer Coolidge’s character in The White Lotus? And if so, can we expect to see you on every season?

Kate Chastain: I love that for me. I really do. And I just figure when Alan calls you to come to his castle, you have to say yes. So whenever Alan calls, I will always go.

Alan Cumming: We should have a special phone, a special colored phone.

Kate Chastain: Agent of Chaos phone?

Alan Cumming: Yes.

Todd WilliamsonPeacock

Question: Kate, I want to preface this question [by] saying that I very much enjoy your presence on the show, but I will say that I was a little confused [about] why you came in, in the middle of season two, as to why you weren’t there from the beginning. It kind of puts you on your back foot in terms of understanding things and kind of […] made a bit of an uneven game experience, and that’s been maybe a criticism of the show’s game, is that it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever, which can sometimes be a plus, but can sometimes be a bit of a challenge. So I’m wondering from the perspective of bringing somebody in part way through, how you felt that would kind of disorient the game? And, Kate, how disorienting did you find it?

Kate Chastain: I wasn’t sure going in if they’d be like, ‘Hey, you just got here,’ and I’d be the first one to go because, frankly, I feel like that’s how I probably would have felt. Like, ‘We’ve already done so many missions, and you haven’t done that, so…’ But I was pleasantly surprised that I did not go home that first day, and I think everyone was surprised to see me show up, including myself. So it was a great surprise.

Sam Rees-Jones: […] Kate actually had unfinished business from season one, and she was a fan favorite, and I think we enjoyed spicing things up, having a little bit of a lift. She’s phenomenal — you know, on television as well. Also, we want to sort of keep the players always guessing what’s going to happen next. It’s a murder mystery at the end of the day. So, we enjoyed Kate arriving halfway through.

Alan Cumming: Bringing the chaos.

There’s a Panic Button for Being Buried Alive
NBC Universal

Question: Is there ever a version of this where we don’t know, the viewing audience, who the Traitors are? And then has anyone been seriously hurt or freaked out? I was thinking about being buried alive.

Stephen Lambert: I don’t think the idea of a show where you don’t know who the Traitors are would work so well. We had that with the show The Mole. And I think you end up watching a show where you feel all the time that you’re being misled by editing, and I think that what’s so strong about this format is the fact that we are giving the viewers this sort of dramatic irony of feeling all-powerful because they know who the Traitors are, and the enjoyment that comes from watching what’s going on and thinking why can’t the Faithful work it out? It’s so obvious.

I know that when the format was originally devised in Holland, the people who created it found it very difficult to sell it because a lot of buyers thought, ‘That’s never going to work, you’re giving away who the Traitors are.’ But, actually, I think it’s the genius of it.

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Question: And has anyone been hurt?

Sam Rees-Jones: No.

Question: Seriously freaked out?

Sam Rees-Jones: No.

Alan Cumming: Pete did.

Sam Rees-Jones: Yes.

Alan Cumming: Pete freaked out.

Sam Rees-Jones: No, health and safety of the cast […] and welfare are the most important things to us. The buried alive thing from season one, no, there was a lot [going] into that before any of the cast were buried, and —

Alan Cumming: And there’s always sort of a panic button.

Sam Rees-Jones: Yeah, there is. I mean, I won’t — I don’t want to give too much away because it would lift the curtain on sort of the visuals of it. But there [were] ways to get out and all those [kinds] of things. They don’t need to know that, because that sort of adds to the drama of it all.

Choosing the Traitors

Question: What goes into actually choosing the Traitors? Like, what are your conversations about who would make a good Traitor and why you’re selecting them?

Stephen Lambert: We’re looking for people who want to be a Traitor, and who can pull it off. You don’t want somebody who is, I mean, it’s a lot more pressure being a Traitor than it is being a Faithful. And so you’re making an assessment as to who’s got the personality to do it. And then, what’s the right combination?

Sam Rees-Jones: We do a personality test with everyone before they go in, which is sort of, which gives us a bit more of a sort of an idea of, you know, could they take it on, like Stephen says. It’s hard, it’s taxing. And you will have seen in episode one, Alan has the chats with them, which we didn’t do in [Season one]. Those chats actually gave us a lot of information as well. We didn’t actually pick who the Traitors were until, I don’t know, a couple of hours before the round table when Alan taps them on the shoulder. So we’re really sort of, we’re seeing how they are on that first day as well. So all of that sort of goes, and Alan’s opinion as well, all goes into sort of us picking them.

Alan Cumming: And in terms of picking them, it’s the most terrifying part of the whole series for me, because I could fuck it up hugely by just banging someone with my elbow. And there was, and there was one more than last year, wasn’t there?

Sam Rees-Jones: Oh, yeah, they were so close.

Alan Cumming: So they were more squashed at the table. So, to get my arm, it was kind of like, yeah, like sort of gym exercise. So that’s, and also, I feel like I can…

Sam Rees-Jones: It was Johnny Bananas that was right next to Phaedra, you’ve got to be so careful. Johnny Bananas is going to feel it, any little movement.

Alan Cumming: And then, so I have Sam in my ear, and I was very aware of, in the control room, the tension, and also the contestants are all really tense and anxious. And so it’s really, my heart is pounding. But I do all these tricks to sort of confuse them, and stop, and walk back, and do things with my arm, and…

Well, you’ll have to wait and see. The Traitors is streaming on Peacock through the link below. The ninth episode of The Traitors season two arrives on February 22, and the 10th episode debuts on February 29. The season finale airs on March 7.

Watch The Traitors