How ‘The Traitors’ Became One of the Most Popular Reality Shows on TV
Open social media on any given Thursday night as of late, and you’ve probably seen a message that reads something like “If you’re not watching #TheTraitors wtf are you actually doing.”
The Peacock series, which premiered in January and airs every Thursday night, has become an addictive guilty pleasure, earning the number one spot among unscripted streaming series and turning out endlessly quotable one-liners and internet memes on a weekly basis.
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The global franchise originated with the Dutch show De Verraders in 2021. A year later, The Traitors was adapted for a U.K. audience, and in January 2023, the first season of The Traitors U.S. premiered, hosted by none other than Alan Cumming. All variations of the show follow the same format: combining reality TV stars from various shows to compete in a murder mystery-esque game for a cash prize. Among the 20 cast members, three are designated Traitors who secretly work to try to eliminate everyone else. Viewers know who the traitors are, but the rest of the cast, called Faithful, do not. If one Traitor can make it to the end of the show undetected, they win all the money; if all the Traitors are eliminated, the remaining Faithfuls split the prize.
While the first season of The Traitors was popular among viewers, nothing has compared to the success of Season Two — in large part thanks to the star-studded cast. Real Housewives stars like Phaedra Parks and Larsa Pippin, Love Island contestants Ekin-Su Cülcüloğlu and Carsten “Bergie” Bergersen, boxer Deontay Wilder, The Bachelor’s Peter Weber, and even John Bercow, a member of UK Parliament, have managed to capture the audience’s attention in a way that not even the producers of the show expected.
Rolling Stone spoke with executive producers Mike Cotton and Toni Ireland about creating the US version of The Traitors, the countless memes and jokes to come out of the show, and why they think the formula behind this reality series has made it into a cultural phenomenon.
The Traitors has become appointment viewing. Why do you think viewers are connecting with the show so much?
Ireland: We’re so happy with how well it’s been received by the audience. I think Season One was really well received, too, and for it to progress and find more viewers is really exciting for us. I think this year, with the celebrities that we got on the show, they played it better than ever. One of the really great things for us as producers is that some of the cast members that you might not have predicted would be great at this game are actually at the forefront and leading the game.
Cotton: I could have never predicted Pilot Pete from The Bachelor would be such a strategist! It’s really fascinating to watch it play out, especially when you’re a viewer and you’re in on who the Traitors are. I love that it’s become appointment viewing. I mean, it’s dropping one episode a week, which is quite unusual these days now, because they’ve been so used to being able to binge something straight away. But the excitement builds again, and people want to discuss it before the next episode arrives.
Take me back to the beginning. What did The Traitors look like when you first pitched it? Does that version of the show resemble what it’s turned into?
Cotton: It was three years ago when Toni and a couple of us went over to look at the Dutch version. I think we all noticed that it was doing really well over there in such a small market with smaller budgets. We had the rights to make it in the U.K. and in the U.S. Over there, they are very strict in that the show is a game first and foremost. There’s a real set of rules for that game, and they think as long as you only stick to the game, it will give you really good content. We were used to working on shows where we’d throw this bomb in to make something happen, and that’s not what we do in this show. We obviously have twists that you want to put in and there’s the routine of the day, but we don’t ever tell people to go and chat with someone else. We don’t ever produce scenes because we’re so terrified about ever giving away who the Traitors might be. The contestants watch everything, they watch how many times someone goes to an interview, how many times people go to the bathroom, because they’re trying to find out who the Traitors are. So we don’t do anything that would interfere with that.
You filmed Season Two in about two weeks, and each episode takes place over the course of one day of filming. How did you settle on that timeframe? It’s not very long!
Ireland: That was a format that we learned from the Dutch as well. From them, we learned that if you keep it tighter, then each bit of format drives the next scene of reality, and the players don’t want to be playing it over a long period of time; they just want to get going with the game. They really enjoy the sort of pressure of the situation and it keeps moving.
Cotton: It does feel like a pressure cooker. Imagine you went to bed last night thinking, “I might get murdered in the night,” and then if you survive the night, you go to breakfast, find out that one of your best friends is gone, and then you have to try and defend yourself at the round table that day. So the cycle just keeps going, and it’s really where the contestants learn the rhythm of the day. They just sort of follow the routine.
Ireland: And it can change in a heartbeat. The way people are thinking in the morning can be completely different by the time it’s the roundtable.
Do the cast members sleep in the castle?
Cotton: We don’t ever talk about where they sleep. We don’t comment on it. What we can say is that nighttime is like a military operation for us. The whole secrecy of the show is about making sure that no one finds out who the Traitors are when obviously everyone is desperate to find out who they are. All the cast has individual lodgings and they’re all on lockdown. They can’t ever leave their rooms or communicate with each other at night so that we can get the Traitors back out and they can meet in the tower.
One of the most compelling parts of The Traitors is the cast. Are there any stars on your wish list for next season?
Cotton: It is like a big jigsaw puzzle. We always say we cast the show much like if you were putting together a jury because of the round tables. We want people who can all bring something unique to the show. I think that’s what we loved about this season: we had our gamers who’ve done Big Brother and The Challenge, then we had people who were from Real Housewives, we had a British politician, and people from Love Island. We loved all of that. I think we are looking at the same thing next season. I think we’ll still have people who are used to doing competition reality shows, but also those who haven’t. I’d love someone from Vanderpump Rules in the show; I think that’d be brilliant. I’d be lying if that wasn’t on our list. But I also think it’d be really interesting to get more sports people in the show as well. An American footballer is trained to win, so how would they do it in a show like this? Having some people with more academic backgrounds is interesting as well. I think we’re going to look for a similar mix. It’s great to have X [formerly Twitter] because everyone gives us their casting suggestions!
Are you paying attention to the memes, jokes, and commentary fans are posting online?
Ireland: Yes, we read them religiously. Because we’re in the U.K., we wake up on a Friday morning after the show airs on Thursday night in the U.S., and the first thing we do is check X and send memes to each other. It’s so refreshing. I know that X can be a really dark place at times but I think the show can bring out the best in people in terms of the memes and the comments. They’ve been so funny and so supportive. It’s really lovely to see how much the audience is enjoying the show. The cast enjoys [the feedback] as well.
Cotton: Of all the memes, Phaedra is a gift. I still love the moment when she says, “Lord, not Ekin-Su.”
Why do you think Phaedra has become such a standout star on this show?
Cotton: When we met Phaedra, I remember her saying, “My mom loves this show, I’ve got to win it.” She had studied it, I think. She really took us by surprise in terms of how into it she was. I remember talking to Parvati [Shallow] and Dan [Gheesling] at one point, and they were like, “This show is so hard because with something like Big Brother or Survivor, you go in there with a strategy and you can sort of set your strategy. But within this show, you have a power one day, and then the next day your closest allies have been murdered or been banished so you just can’t ever fully strategize.” I think Phaedra’s brilliant at rolling with the punches and just adapting. She really performed.
Ireland: She’s super smart, and she’s a trained lawyer, so she’s used to arguing, which also really helps. Her makeup was so perfect. No one thought she could possibly be up late at night murdering people because if she were a Traitor, how would she have the time to put on the most perfect makeup?
Cotton: We were always amazed by that because the Traitors had less sleep than everyone else since they had to stay up late at night, and she would always look perfect the next morning.
One of the most iconic moments to come from the show was when Phaedra responded to Dan’s betrayal, saying, “I do too much ‘cause you do too little?”
Ireland: It’s incredible to watch. If we’re totally honest, our favorite moment of our day is always the roundtable. Alan sets it off, and away it goes. Obviously, as producers, we knew what was coming. We knew what Dan’s plan was; we knew he was coming for Phaedra. We had no idea how she would react, but, of course, we had faith she’d give it a good go. How she defended herself was so eloquent. It was incredible how she did it. I wouldn’t want to be in Dan’s seat at that moment. Phaedra is super smart, but she’s so funny as well and she’s got charm. I think that is the sort of killer triple threat for any Traitor.
Why do you think Alan Cumming is so important to the show’s success as a host?
Cotton: He’s the perfect puppet master. When we first got the rights to the U.S. version, we were like, “We’d love for him to do it.” We knew we’d found the castle in Scotland, and we wanted someone who felt like they could be Lord of the Manor or Lord of the Castle, but also, the show is quite dark; there’s murder and banishment, and we use quite dark words, and we knew that he’d add a bit of campiness and a bit of fun to the show. He’s really involved; he has a feed in his room so he can watch all the stories going on. He’ll message us, “Who’s been murdered? I need to know before I go to bed.” He’s really into it, and that’s so great.
Ireland: He got the character straight away. In the first conversation we had, we started talking about the outfits, how they could be wild, and he could have loads of fun with them.
You brought back Below Deck’s Kate Chastain, who previously appeared in Season One. Would you be open to bringing cast members from this season back again?
Cotton: Never say never. The show is like a murder mystery, and no two murder mysteries are ever the same. I think we’ll always mix it up in terms of some of the twists that we see. I’d hate for it to become predictable. I think we’ll never say never, but we’d like to think that we could come up with something for the viewers in a different way.
Since the show is still evolving, is there anything that you would be open to changing or adapting in future seasons?
Cotton: In Season Two, I loved the poison chalice and the funeral. I think those were our favorite bits. I think we could play with it a bit more in the way people are murdered.
Ireland: I loved the chalice because you were on the edge of your seat. We didn’t know where that chalice was going. What was really good about it was putting the Traitors under pressure because sometimes it can feel like the Traitors had too much of an easy ride.
Have you begun to work on Season Three?
Cotton: We’re in pre-production at the moment. We are definitely reading all those casting lists — if fans have suggestions, we’re looking! We’re also looking at how we can improve the missions in Season Three to raise the stakes. Obviously, we have lots of purpose within the show, but we’re looking at how we can integrate the missions more into the overall story because sometimes they sit on their own.
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