My daughter recently discovered a new reality game show streaming on Peacock, Traitors. There is an American, UK, and Australian version. Each of these iterations has their 1st season on the platform. Supposedly a Dutch version of the show was the original one from a couple of years ago. I’ve only seen the three iterations on Peacock. While there a some slight variations between the regional versions, they are all basically the same game. The UK and the US versions were both fimed in the same Scottish castle.
Basically the premise of the game is as follows: 20 - 24 guests are invited to come to a remote locations to play the game. At the beginning of the game, everyone is on the same footing. The first day is about getting to know each other and building relationships. On the evening of the first day, the group meets at a round table and are told that the game will be made up of two groups, traitors and faithfuls. Everyone is blind folded and the host walks around the group and if they touch your shoulder then you have been selected to be a traitor. There are normally 3 traitors selected.
Traitors have the power to “murder” one faithful per night, at their choosing. A player that is “murdered” leaves the game and does not return. The faithfuls need to determine who the traitors are among them. Each day the whole group participates in a mission to win prize money for the group bank. It is during these missions and other social interactions that the faithful attempt to discern who the traitors are among them.
Each evening the group meets at the round table to discuss and then vote to banish someone in the group, with the hope of elminating traitors. All it takes is the most votes (not a majority) at the banishment meeting to be voted off. The banished must then declare if they are a “traitor” or a “faithful”. If at the end of the season, if there are any traitors remaining in the group, the traitor(s) win all of the money in the bank.
The max prize in the UK version was £120,000, the Aussie version AU$250,000, and the US version $250,000…thus the US version was the biggest payout. All considering, not a big payout for a reality tv show. Also the US version had some players that were from other reality TV shows, like Survivor, Big Brother, Bravo shows, etc.
Generally, it’s about building relationships, trust, deception, and manipulation. Almost everyone thinks they are great at spotting liars and people jump on suspicions for all the wrong reasons. The missions, which are laid out as competitions are kind of pointless, as there isn’t really a competition, everyone should be motivated for everyone to succeed at the missions as the money all goes into the same prize bank. And traitors and faithfull alike should have a vested interest in seeing their teammates being murdered off and banished, as the fewer player left at the end, means more money per person.
It’s generally entertaining, as the audience you’re in the know as to who the traitors are and it’s entertaining watching the faithful be clueless in their convictions, as well as it is to see traitors be really stupid when they think they are being really clever.