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The Traitors US is way meaner than the UK – but I’m here for the messiness

Posted on January 18, 2023 By admin

The Traitors US is way meaner than the UK – but I’m here for the messiness



A line up of cast members for the TV show The Traitors US
The biggest change is in the casting (Picture: NBC Universal)

There aren’t many things currently on television more unhinged than The Traitors – the BBC’s word-of-mouth smash hit from late last year. 

But one show definitely is: the US version, which dropped on iPlayer as a box-set last week.

Late to the party? 

Bear with me: 20-odd contestants make themselves at home in a gothic castle in the north of Scotland, working together on daily missions to add to a rolling prize fund.

But a handful of those contestants are secretly Traitors, and at the end of every day, they’ll anonymously ‘murder’ (eliminate) one of the ‘Faithfuls’ (non-Traitors) from the game. 

The Faithfuls, in turn, must work to identify and banish the Traitors at daily roundtables, at which one contestant is voted out – revealing whether they’re a Faithful or a Traitor on their way out.

Come the finale, the winning Faithfuls split the prize money – provided they’ve successfully ousted all the Traitors. If they haven’t, and any Traitors remain, those duplicitous contestants take the lot.

Ratings began modestly for the UK run late last year, but quickly rose as more and more people cottoned on to the sheer drama of it: soon it became true appointment television, airing three nights a week over four very intense weeks.

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If you ask me, it might well be the best addition to the reality competition genre since Big Brother at its best.

Now, mere weeks after its finale, the US version is here – and it has a lot in common with the UK one: same Highlands location, same format, many of the same challenges. 

Alan Cumming is in Claudia Winkleman’s hosting role; deliciously in-character as the campy, eccentric MC of the Murder Mystery vacation. 

The episode count is slightly lower (10 episodes versus the UK’s 12); and we’re seemingly encouraged to believe here that the contestants are all sleeping overnight in the castle, despite host Cumming revealing that they stayed in a hotel by Inverness airport. 

The biggest and most impactful difference, however, is in the casting.

In the UK version, the line-up was widely praised for involving a diverse bunch of everyday characters from across the country – ages ranging from 21 to 72, and barely any of the usual wannabe influencers we see on shows like Love Island.

In this US offshoot, it’s a 50/50 split between previous reality TV veterans and ordinary ‘civilians’ – and it changes everything. 

Alumni from American reality mainstays like Survivor, Below Deck, Big Brother, The Bachelor and The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills are in mix alongside the likes of an ER nurse, a director of music services, a political analyst, and a yoga instructor. 

Will you be watching the US version of the Traitors? Have your say in the comments belowComment Now

It’s a move that completely changes the feel of the game: where the UK contestants were proudly saying ‘I’ve made a friend for life’ after about five minutes, this lot are fully focussed on gameplay and strategy from the word go.

The personalities are bigger, the roundtable debates are more brutal, and the rivalries are intense – which, given the background of the contestants, was perhaps inevitable. 

There’s much less of a sense of camaraderie with this lot  – in fact, some players are openly hostile. 

Watch out for the moment in which a disenfranchised Faithful fully, openly sabotages the team during one of the daily challenges because they just can’t be arsed to play ball anymore.

Alan Cumming in a chequered suit standing in front of a billboard for the Traitors
Alan Cumming is deliciously in-character (Picture: Peacock/Getty Images)

There’s also a roundtable at which one person votes for their suspected Traitor and adds: ‘If I’m incorrect, I’m OK with it because I find you really offensive.’

The result is a show with more fireworks than its UK counterpart, but a little less heart and warmth.

Amanda’s iconic warning to Wilfred in The Traitors UK would have been a mere footnote in this run, where clashes, warnings, pleas and arguments are served up every couple of minutes.

It’s not that bonds and friendships don’t exist, or that the Traitors don’t still struggle with their duplicitousness – but there’s nothing as high stakes as, say, Hannah and Wilfred; or Andrea and… well, everyone.

As such, it took me a little while to warm up to. Three or four episodes in, I was still saying ‘who?’ about far too many contestants, because certain others had been hogging so much airtime with their boisterousness.

Great characters do exist, though: the star of the show is undoubtedly Below Deck’s Kate Chastain, who’ll have you fuming, laughing, fuming again and then rooting for her, often within the space of one single episode.

Cirie Fields from Survivor comes the closest to being the equivalent of our very own Amanda; and from the non-celebrity side, Andie Vanacore – a trans non-binary parent-to-be – becomes a pure wholesome hero when some of the bigger characters fall away and they finally find the spotlight.

There are still punch-the-air moments at roundtables, there are still fascinating and ever-changing interpersonal dynamics at play, and there are still twists and turns that throw everything on its head.

And come the second half of the season, you’ll be gnawing at your fingernails at the sheer tension like nobody’s business. 

Take it from me, you’ll have no chance of getting through the finale without screaming and/or crying.

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Does it bottle lightning in quite the same way as The Traitors UK? Not quite.

But knowing it was filmed before the UK one allows us to think of this as a sort of dry-run: a brilliant show that led to an even better show; the one we all got so obsessed with in December.

I remain emphatically Faithful to this ludicrously addictive new brand.

Do you have a story you’d like to share? Get in touch by emailing [email protected]. 

Share your views in the comments below.


MORE : The Traitors US fans are left utterly perplexed by sudden exit of Amanda Clark: ‘Why did she leave so abruptly?’


MORE : The Traitors US host Alan Cumming shares savage plastic surgery suggestion for cast: ‘That would be my one wish for next time’


MORE : The Traitors US: Where is the series filmed? All about Ardross Castle

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