Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The Traitors’ On Peacock, Where Reality Stars And Civilians Try To Figure Out Who Among Them Is Trying To “Murder” Them

The Traitors had a well-regarded run in the UK in late 2022, and right after that season stopped filming the US version started. It took the same Scottish Highlands castle as its setting but made two changes: It presented Alan Cumming the host, and made half of the 20-contestant pool a group of well-known reality TV stars. How did that help or hurt?

THE TRAITORS: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: Scenes from the Scottish Highlands.

The Gist: Hosted by Alan Cumming in “my castle,” which is actually Andross Castle near Inverness, The Traitors is a reality series where a group of twenty contestants try to find out who among them has been designated a “traitor” by Cumming and the producers. The three “traitors”, who eventually are introduced to each other during the first full day at the castle, chose which of the “Faithfuls” to “murder” each night. The “murdered” contestant is given notice overnight and has to leave the castle.

The Faithfuls get a chance to turn the tables by taking votes to see if they know who the Traitors are. If they guess right, that Traitor goes home.

By doing daily tasks — in the first episode, the group is split into two teams who are supposed to set a statue on fire — a bank is built up. Whichever Faithfuls are left after all the Traitors are eliminated split the pot, which could get as large as $250,000, which is also split by who remains at the end of the game. But if any Traitors remain at the end of the game, they get the pot.

In a bit of a twist, the group of 20 contestants consists of 10 “civilians” and 10 celebrities, all of which have been on one reality show or another. The celebrity participants are Arie Luyendyk Jr., Brandi Glanville, Cirie Fields, Cody Calafiore, Kate Chastain, Kyle Cooke, Reza Farahan, Ryan Lochte, Stephenie LaGrossa Kendrick and Rachel Reilly.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? In a lot of ways, The Traitors is like The Mole, except that viewers know who the Traitors are, and there’s a lot more Gothic-esque ceremony around the “Murder” and the roundtable meetings.

Our Take: A number of things set The Traitors apart from other “don’t trust anyone” elimination reality competitions, and these things make the show very watchable. The first is the scenery in the Scottish Highlands, which is looks only slightly less spectacular on screen as it does in person (believe us, we know; we were there 25 years ago and still remember how breathtaking it was).

The second is Cumming’s gleefully scene-chewing hosting. We were surprised that an actor of his caliber would host a reality competition like this, but he leans into the gig hard, landing his Scottish accent hard on words like “murder” and some of the other Gothic-like elements of the game, while displaying his penchant for pulling off outfits that include kilts, colorful hats and other items that few reality hosts could ever pull off.

But the final element that we’re enjoying is the half-celebrity, half-civilian group of contestants. There is a cross-section of reality celebs (and goofball Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte) that all bring various ways to scheme and deceive, whether it’s from Big Brother, Survivor, The Bachelor, or as we see with the Brandi-Kate-Reza alliance, assorted Bravo franchises.

They think that, because of their previous reality show experience, they have a leg up on the ten “normies” that they are in the castle with. But it doesn’t take long to show that the civilians are there to play and aren’t at all wowed by the so-called experience of the reality stars among them. Even by the end of the first episode, the distinction between the celebs and civilians starts to fall away as their personalities mesh and clash. Seeing the celebrities’ overconfidence start to be shaken (and the first elimination certainly does that) is one of the more delicious parts of this series, as far as we’re concerned.

Sex and Skin: None.

Parting Shot: The hooded Traitors give Cumming the envelope of the person they want to “murder,” and Cumming slips it under the door of the person’s room.

Sleeper Star: We want to know just what the hell Ryan Lochte is doing there, and just who he’s going to outmaneuver. It’s almost like he’s the guy the Traitors will keep around for the whole show just because he’s seemingly so harmless.

Most Pilot-y Line: As soon as the group walks into the castle, Reza points out which design elements, like the floor, aren’t original. Who the hell cares, Reza?

Our Call: STREAM IT. Between Cumming’s scenery-chewing and the whole dynamic between the reality stars and the civilians make The Traitors fun to watch.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.