This week I took an early morning cup of coffee to the dog park, I had a work lunch at an Italian restaurant, I chatted with my colleagues in between productive bursts, and I had a glass of wine with my best friend. I had the same lighthearted and enjoyable conversation each time. It began like this: “Are you watching ‘The Traitors?’”
The highly lauded third season of Peacock’s “The Traitors” ended Thursday night with a four-way tie between “faithfuls:” “The Real Housewives of New Jersey” star Dolors Catania, Zac Efron’s brother Dylan Efron, British aristocrat Ivar Mountbatten, and former “Bachelorette” Gabby Windey. Viewership is split. This ending is either a beautiful display of teamwork and a win for morality — or rather boring. Whichever way you read it, Americans are talking about it, breakout stars have been cemented, and season four is underway.
Set against the lush Scottish countryside, “The Traitors” capitalizes on the psychological power of nostalgia in a major way.
“The Traitors,” a reality-cum-challenge-cum-murder-mystery television program, is an indisputable success. But why?
Set against the lush Scottish countryside, “The Traitors” capitalizes on the psychological power of nostalgia in a major way. In a time when the present and future can feel paralyzingly uncertain for Americans in particular, it’s no mystery that reminiscing on fond cultural collective memories has mass appeal. The very framework of the show is based on a social deduction party game beloved by American tweens called “werewolf” or “mafia.” At the beginning of the game, as in “The Traitors,” each player is secretly assigned a role as werewolf or as villager — as traitor or as faithful. The game alternates between night, where the werewolf or traitor may indiscriminately “kill” a villager or a faithful, and day, where the remaining villagers or faithfuls must vote to eliminate a suspected werewolf or traitor. The show raises the stakes with a potential monetary win and different challenges, often physical, sometimes psychological, that contribute to the winnings pot. The series doesn’t harp on the idea that it is based on a game you’ve most likely played at a middle school sleepover party in 1999, but it doesn’t really have to. The familiarity of “The Traitors” premise cannot help but to immediately orient viewers: They know the rules, the tenor, the strategy, and they know it is fun.
Award-winning actor Alan Cumming is experiencing a career resurgence as the theatrical, grandiose and fashionable host of “The Traitors.” He speaks in rhymes and riddles, laughs alongside the contestants and wears pitch perfect costumes conceived by stylist Sam Spector. Cumming’s brightly colored kilts, fur-trimmed cloaks and embellished plaid are perfectly executed camp and a calling card of the show. Cumming spoke to Women’s Wear Daily about the outfits, saying: “It’s sort of part of the whole DNA of the show now. I feel like we’ve sort of subverted the form of reality TV a little bit. And so, what I’m wearing is an element of each episode. We’ve kind of added another layer to the thing.” And they have. The contestants have followed suit, wearing Scottish-inspired, high-camp hats, skirts and coats to every episode.
Produced by Studio Lambert, based in the U.K. and California, “The Traitors” features reality stars from all different reality franchises, including RuPaul’s “Drag Race,” MTV’s “The Challenge,” CBS’ “Big Brother” and “Survivor,” and Bravo’s whole slate of reality shows. The result isn’t just a rare symbiosis between the country’s biggest networks and their biggest programs, it’s a genuinely successful ensemble. The show has character variety, multiple perspectives and subplots. It’s worth noting that the first season cast “regular” people, including a political analyst and an ER nurse, alongside the reality names. It worked, at least for this viewer, as a refreshing foil to the reality stars.
But it was more work. By simply capitalizing on America’s persistent love affair with unscripted television, particularly Bravo’s mega-successful “Real Housewives” franchise, production now doesn’t need to work as hard to make the viewer feel attached to the cast. Here, too, the nostalgia is deftly employed. I, for example, am an unabashed and long-time fan of “The Real World” and “The Challenge” franchises. It was fun to see “The Challenge” mainstay Wes Bergmann at the roundtable alongside the generally loathed Bravo star Tom Sandoval. While the interpersonal relationships, the drama and the treachery are part of what keeps us all tuning back in, they are only a part of the whole story. Consider the aim of “The Traitors.” While fame, or at least notoriety, is of course the ultimate prize for any reality star, “The Traitors” is a game with a decisive goal and a winner. It changes the stakes in a way that feels refreshing and, ultimately, more authentic. While the interpersonal relationships, the drama and the treachery are part of what keeps us all tuning back in, they are only a part of the whole story. The strategy, the teamwork and the “game play” are the other. We could — and I would love to — debate the ways in which reality television is destroying our society, rotting our brains and disintegrating our moral fabric. Perhaps it is. In my experience, that is certainly an argument men like to make to women viewers. I might point to a group of politicians for societal degradation, but I digress. I’m not suggesting “The Traitors” is arthouse, nor particularly thought provoking, nor the best television show of all time. But I like it. Nearly everyone likes it. This season debuted as “the most-watched unscripted series in the U.S. during that week across all platforms” according to NBC Universal, which owns Peacock (and MSNBC). The reality is this: Unscripted television is both a break from the heaviness that permeates every aspect of American society today and a cultural touchstone that so many of us can share. In a country so divided, finding any sort of commonality, unscripted television show or otherwise, is a great thing.
Hannah Holland
Hannah Holland is a producer for MSNBC's "Velshi" and editor for the "Velshi Banned Book Club." She writes for MSNBC Daily. 
