High fashion, absurd challenges, stunning Scottish scenery and riveting interpersonal dynamics – oh, and murder. It’s the best of reality TV, and then some. The Traitors US is halfway through its third season, serving up unforgettable characters, enduring feuds and as many fake tears as real ones.
This show is getting its best ratings yet in the US, after beating the likes of RuPaul’s Drag Race and The Amazing Race at the Emmys last year. But it’s barely getting any hype in Australia, even with new episodes dropping on 10Play each Friday. It’s a real shame, considering Australia had a critically acclaimed (and criminally under-watched) version of the show that was a hit in the UK, with one reviewer calling it “wild, magical TV”. But it also means you have lots of great TV to catch up on.
Alan Cumming hosts the US version of The Traitors.
What is The Traitors?
The premise of this reality competition show is relatively simple. About 20 people descend on a lavish castle in the Scottish highlands for a game of intrigue and deception, and the chance to win $US250,000 ($402,000). Most of the group are innocent “faithful”, but a small number are secretly assigned “traitors”, tasked with “murdering” (ousting from the show) their fellow contestants one by one. Viewers are in on the secret, and watch as the traitors lie and deceive to keep their identities hidden. The faithful then try to unmask the traitors without putting a target on their own back.
But the cloak-and-dagger murders aren’t the most tantalising part. Each episode, the group face one another at a round table to pitch who they think is a traitor – ultimately voting someone out of the game. The smallest slip, from traitor or faithful, can be enough for people to get suspicious, pile votes on and banish them from the castle.
Faithful who make it to the end split the prizemoney. But if a traitor sneaks through to the finale, they take the whole pot.
Why is it worth watching?
If the promise of subterfuge and deception isn’t enough, the show is, as host Alan Cumming told Entertainment Weekly, “the campiest thing since Christmas”. The opulent murder-mystery backdrop of elaborate tapestries, secret rooms and gilded portraits of each contestant is juxtaposed with the silliness of the challenges that can leave contestants stranded, shivering and wet, in the middle of a loch, or lost in a funhouse at the mercy of evil clowns.
The Traitors has won three Emmys, including for best reality competition and best host. Credit: Jae C. Hong/Invision/AP
Cumming plays a grandiose version of himself, turning out each episode in elaborate outfits and chiding contestants in his purring Scottish brogue. It’s a performance that won him the Emmy for outstanding reality host last year, unseating drag queen RuPaul after an eight-year run.
In this US version of the show, the cast are well-known personalities – often from other reality TV shows. This season features three past winners from Survivor (Tony Vlachos, “Boston Rob” Mariano and Jeremy Collins), as well as Chrishell Stause from Selling Sunset and Vanderpump Rules star Tom Sandoval. These are people who know how to play strategic games and deliver pithy one-liners that make for great TV.
There are also plenty of famous-adjacent players, such as Zac Efron’s younger brother, Britney Spears’ ex-husband and King Charles’ second cousin. Some contestants have previously been on shows together (often as bitter adversaries) and more than one has come to The Traitors with a taste for revenge. You don’t need to be versed in the intershow lore, though. Even some contestants are hilariously uninformed of the reputations preceding their competitors.
A dapper Rodger Corser hosted two seasons of the Australian version of the reality show The Traitors.
What about the international versions?
Originating in the Netherlands in 2021, this format has proven popular around the globe. It now has more than 20 spin-offs, each with its own unique twists and turns. The beloved UK Traitors casts ordinary people instead of celebrities, focusing on manipulating interpersonal dynamics to bring the drama rather than relying on fame. One such stunt involved secretly casting a mother and son in season two. Hosted by broadcaster Claudia Winkleman in the same Scottish castle as the US series, the stakes feel high as the competitors compete for money that would genuinely change their lives. Season three has just wrapped, and a fourth has already been commissioned. You can watch all three seasons on 10Play.
In Australia, actor Rodger Corser hosted the local version in the stately Robertson Hotel in the NSW Southern Highlands. The cast was a mix of former reality contestants and non-celebrities – you wouldn’t call them ordinary though, as some contestants with wild backstories up the ante. Two seasons are available on 10Play, but a third has not been announced.
The Traitors streams on 10Play on Fridays.
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