The champion became the fourth installment’s “breakout star.”
In unsettled times like these, maybe some escapism would be beneficial.
For that kind of change of pace, the clever reality series The Traitors — roughly a combination of Survivor and Big Brother — is potentially one of the very few reasons to subscribe to the NBC Peacock streaming service.
The Emmy-winning Traitors is a reality competition program for content consumers who strictly avoid reality shows but do enjoy watching competitive individuals in close quarters use their social skills to scheme and deceive — and forge wholly transactional alliances — from the start to the finale.
In other words, it’s perhaps the only reality show that’s actually grounded in real life to some degree.
Season 4 of the U.S. version just crowned its champion (see details below).
With top-notch production values and crafty editing that makes it addictive, each season of The Traitors comprises about 10-12 episodes.
Thus far, the U.S. versions are mostly comprised of attention seekers who make a living bouncing from one reality show to another.
Overseas version of the show primarily feature regular people as the contestants.
Both the U.S. and the U.K. versions take place in a castle in the Scottish Highlands over a couple of weeks.
Even given the semi-obnoxious or narcissistic reality show cohort among the cast, The Traitors is very watchable and bingeable.
Grokipedia describes the basic format of the competition that starts off on day one with about 20 contestants:
“The contestants compete in a game of deception and strategy, divided secretly into Traitors who must eliminate the Faithfuls while avoiding detection, with the surviving group vying for a prize pot of up to $250,000 built through missions—if all Traitors are banished, the Faithfuls split the money, but any remaining Traitor claims it all.”
As NPR asserted back in 2023, the series is “goofy, hyperdramatic, suspenseful and pretty entertaining.”
With presumably input from his colleagues behind the scenes, host (and one of the executive producers) Alan Cumming, a Scottish actor and director who admits to playing a flamboyant character on the show, selects three Traitors with a shoulder tap in the first episode from among the blindfolded contestants.
In each episode, with some exceptions, the Traitors meet secretly in the castle turret to decide which of the Faithful they will eliminate (i.e., rhetorically “murder”) from the competition. [Season 4 also included a secret/hidden Traitor for the first time, which was an interesting nuance that will presumably be refined in future seasons.]
Each episode also includes a banishment ceremony during which contestants collectively meet at the roundtable to publicly vote someone out of the castle whom they believe to be a Traitor.
Everyone, of course, denies being a Traitor, even the Traitors.
Thus, all kinds of intrigue, betrayal, backstabbing, and flawed decision-making can occur as the competitors try to sus out who among them is a Traitor and send him or her home.
After the vote, the banished person enters the “circle of truth” to dramatically reveal which side he or she is on, which prompts either rejoicing or despair from the remaining contestants (or fake rejoicing/despair by the remaining Traitors).
Viewers will quickly find themselves rooting for or against certain contestants as the latter try to navigate the tricky process.
In day-to-day life, everybody inadvertently says things that come out or sound awkward, or worse, or what they don’t really mean. On The Traitors, that can be rightly, or mostly wrongly, decisive.
In trying to identify a Traitor, the Faithful tend to jump on just about any verbal or non-verbal cue, which may or may not be significant. And sometimes a bandwagon effect takes hold.
As such, it’s very difficult to play the game effectively while avoiding being targeted for either banishment or murder, which makes it fun for the viewer watching at home.
For example, someone on the Faithful team with a low-key personality and/or is less opinionated can create mistrust among the other Faithfuls, while the Traitors often perceive an outspoken Faithful as a threat to their game control.
Even experienced, savvy gamers sometimes make strategic errors or blunders that get them booted off the show.
In a roundabout analogy that may or may not apply, it’s sort of like when the hard-working cubicle person who stays away from office politics ends up getting outsourced anyway while the smooth-talking employee with a minimal work ethic avoids the layoff.
The way the footage is edited on The Traitors has a lot to do with the audience perception of events.
The voting at the roundtable often yields unpredictable results after everyone, or almost everyone, speaks up. And it gets particularly interesting when the Traitors start turning on each other.
Warning: The Traitors Season 4 spoilers follow:
E News described Season 4 winner Rob Rausch as “one of the most cunning Traitors in the franchise’s history” and also appropriately observed the following about the outcome:
“Traitor Rob Rausch took home $220,800 during the Peacock’s reality competition series’ nail-biting season four finale…throughout the season, the 27-year-old’s tactical game play, masterful acting abilities and willingness to betray any player that stood in his way…were undeniable, which made him season four’s breakout star and the frontrunner heading into the finale…”
Rausch, who previously appeared on a reality show called Love Island USA, managed to be the last Traitor standing, and thus winning all the cash, despite his outwardly restrained demeanor, which kind of defied the odds, and possibly is unprecedented, in the context of the series’ history.
During the day, as alluded to above, the group participates in elaborate physical missions (challenges) that build up the grand cash prize.
In addition to piling up the cash, the team-building or -destroying tasks provide certain incentives for one or more contestants to avoid getting murdered.
Just watching from the couch, the rules for some of these missions seem convoluted.
Imagine being jet lagged, sleep deprived, possibly hungover, and/or disoriented while trying to participate on site with cameras rolling.
It must be a pretty cool, however, to work on the production staff in creating or modifying the twisty game rules or designing/redesigning the missions.
“Contestants and crew were housed off-site at a hotel near Inverness Airport, about a 45-minute drive from the castle, to manage logistics and ensure rest between intense filming days,” Grok indicated.
One difference between the American and British versions is that the latter depicts the contestants leaving the castle each evening in individual SUVs, while none of that is shown on the U.S. show. Presumably the contestants are prevented from communicating with each other while staying overnight at the hotel or hotels.
A behind-the-scenes documentary will hopefully emerge at some point, because the above-mentioned logistics of how the show is structured must be complex and fascinating.
Although there is always a lot to unpack in each set of episodes, here are a few notes about the just-concluded Season 4 of The Traitors:
It’s conceivable perhaps that people can bond quickly in an isolated environment. Typically, crying and other emotional outbursts occur on The Traitors when people start getting voted off even though most of these individuals just met each other, they are well aware of the elimination rules going in, and they can get back in touch within a few weeks after the filming wraps.
Emotionalism and hugging among the contestants who were not murdered as they show up for the big reveal each morning at the castle breakfast buffet are also on the menu (although some or most of that is performative).
Good news: There was less crying, and less hugging, this season, which was a definite upgrade.
On the other hand, there seemed to be a lot more legitimate hard feelings in Season 4 than usual about what happened along the way in the banishments even though, again, it’s just a game. In a SiriusXM interview, Cumming made this observation:
“…It’s actually a fascinating sociological thing to look at, like, that people do take it personally very, very quickly…you’re there for weeks, and you have nothing else to think about…it’s very intense. So no wonder people kind of lose perspective and that this show becomes much more personal.”
Each contestant reportedly receives a significant appearance fee, however, so as long as they get a certain amount of career-continuing TV facetime on the show, they’re actually good to go (literally and figuratively).
Actor/comedian Michael Rapaport was so verbally combative with the rest of the cast that he may be the first contestant ever that to lose a roundtable vote with hardly anyone caring whether he was actually a Faithful or a Traitor.
The connection between Olympic figure skaters Tara Lipinski and Johnny Weir probably made almost every viewer wish they had close friends like that. The duo also accurately figured out who the Traitors were, but just a little bit too late.
Dialing back all the F-bombs and the death symbolism would be improvements as would Cumming calibrating his campy approach to hosting.
The real winner on The Traitors is the wardrobe stylist who supplies the ever-changing outfits for each contestant.
Peacock recently uploaded Season 4 of the U.K. version.
As of now, in addition to four seasons each of the U.S. and U.K. show, two seasons of an Australian version, and one from New Zealand, are also available on Peacock. The rules are roughly the same, with some variations.
The U.K. Traitors separately emulated the U.S. production by adding a celebrity version, although the celebrities other than Stephen Fry would probably be unknown to the American audience.
As a footnote, the cast in that iteration admitted to being the worst group of Faithfuls ever by decimating their ranks until they finally found a Traitor.
And taking a page from its overseas counterparts, the American version currently has a casting call out for an upcoming season featuring ordinary folks.
Original article
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