Emmy-award winning game show, The Traitors, has been praised for its expert casting, intense drama, and exhilarating plotline. With its recent season finale wrapping up a season that has been praised as the best yet, The Traitors is riding high, already announcing their next rendition of the show which will feature a non-celebrity cast. However, I believe that while the show is exciting and a great watch, its structure is such that it will never be as exciting as it could be. Also, when compared to similar social-based game shows, such as Survivor and Big Brother, The Traitors ultimately falls short in strategic depth as it relies more on shock value and out-of-the-blue twists than on the evolving player dynamics that makes other shows so compelling and long-running.
“…The Traitors ultimately falls short in strategic depth as it relies more on shock value and out-of-the-blue twists than on the evolving player dynamics that makes other shows so compelling and long-running.”
Isabella Vlaytchev
Even though I do believe that Rob Rausch, the most recent traitors winner, and an infamous Love Island star, delivered a master-class in manipulation and played a very well-thought out social chess game, he’s one of the rare few (another one being Cirie Fields, the Season 1 winner) who truly maximized the format’s potential. Their wins were impressive not simply because they lied and survived till the end, but because they dictated the narrative of the house by building alliances and maintaining the appearance of a perfect faithful.Â
The problem with the structure of The Traitors is that there are so few clues as to who the traitors are and it doesn’t reward the faithful for banishing a traitor. Its format of nightly murders and roundtable banishments should produce complex strategy, but in actuality creates random guessing and empty claims. Faithfuls have no meaningful evidence to go off of which turns roundtables into more of popularity contests with reactive votes that are solely based on vibes or small social mistakes. Also, when a traitor is banished, the remaining traitors often are able to recruit a new traitor, which entirely undercuts the faithful’s accomplishment of eliminating a traitor in the first place. In contrast, shows like Big Brother and Survivor create an environment where players have agency through immunity idols, veto competitions, and transparent rules that give players the ability to plan multiple moves ahead. However, in The Traitors, production often introduces twists that overshadows genuine game play.Â
While the show needs a structural revamp, it doesn’t fail as entertainment. It thrives off its tension and dramatic reveals, with intense deliberations, lavish costumes, and performative roundtables. With its upcoming non-celebrity season, the show now has the ability to evolve with a cast that would approach the game with more hunger and creativity. Ultimately, The Traitors needs to rethink its design to fit in with shows that have been running for decades, placing greater trust in its players more than its twists.