Note: This story contains spoilers from “The Traitors” Season 4, Episodes 1-3.
Four seasons in, “The Traitors” still has its game masters on their toes, as a new batch of recruited reality TV stars and celebrities make surprise moves and gaffes that leave the executive producers’ hearts in their mouths, despite planning the flow of the game down to the tee.
“You would think four seasons in we would feel calmer about making the show, but our heart rate, I think, this season in the control room was higher than ever watching some of these moments … [because] we never know how they’re going to play out,” EP Sam Rees-Jones told TheWrap, with EP Mike Cotton pointing out the Episode 3 banishment of secret traitor Donna Kelce — who was ousted hours before she would’ve had the opportunity to join forces with the other traitors.
“That could have led to a totally different way that the season played out, and they might have then protected her [or] they might not have,” Cotton said. “We will never know.”
Prior to the chaos that is bound to ensue as the game of betrayal kicks off, Rees-Jones, Cotton and the fellow EPs of “The Traitors” shaped the season by selecting their traitors in “Real Housewives” stars Lisa Rinna and Candiace Dillard Bassett as well as “Love Island USA” Season 6 alum Rob Rausch. The role of the secret traitor was given to Kelce, though her time was short-lived (more on that below.)
After having several gamers in the turret last season, the EPs aimed to mix up selection in Season 4 by including two Housewives, a first for the reality competition series. “We were interested to see if we started with that mix, what would that happen? Would it play out differently to what we’ve seen in previous seasons?” Cotton posed.
“The key reason for suspecting a traitor shouldn’t be, ‘Oh, they will always pick this type of person or this type of background,’ it should be on how they’re acting in the castle,” Rees-Jones said. “Our selection should mirror that as well. Our selection shouldn’t be formulaic … It should be unexpected.”
While the EPs noted they never want to give “too much away” about their traitor selection, they pointed out that Rausch is “a bit of mystery” and “slightly harder to read” when standing side-by-side to the expressive Dillard Bassett.
“It’s a really hard role, being a traitor … and people take it on so differently,” Rees-Jones said. “To see Lisa being a traitor, playing it completely differently, to Rob playing a completely different to Candiace, and different to Donna as well as the secret traitor, it’s compelling to watch and it’s interesting to put yourself in [those shoes].”
Below, Rees-Jones and Cotton break down why they chose Kelce as the secret traitor, Dorinda Medley’s victory making it to her first breakfast and their thoughts on the traitors’ strategy so far. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
TheWrap: Episode 3 reveals Donna Kelce as the secret traitor. Why did you select her, who might’ve been a more obvious guess, and have her be the secret traitor?
Cotton: Anyone could be recruited as a traitor in the show, but we only select people at the start to be a traitor if they want to be a traitor. We thought it was really interesting that she’s this mom that’s brought up her kids and, in many ways, she’s like the US’ mom, she’s this sort of mother figure, so we just thought it would be an interesting choice.
What went into the decision for not even the audience to know about the secret traitor like U.K. “Traitors?”
Cotton: Both [US and U.K.] contain the secret traitor, but they’re executed in very different ways. Lots of people have always said, “Wouldn’t it be really interesting if the viewers didn’t know who the traitors are?” I’ve said before, we don’t agree with that, because we think it’s really interesting that you see who the traitors are, because you get to see their duplicity and how they play the game, and that’s what makes the show so fascinating. But we did think it’d be really interesting the viewers didn’t know who one of the traitors was for parts of the show, so that they get to be a faithful as well and see if they can try and work it out.
Dorinda, who was the first one out last season, made it to her first breakfast this time. Were you worried she could be the first one out again and were there any guard rails you made to make sure that wasn’t the case?
Cotton: No guardrails. But the beauty of the show is that you could lose anyone, you could lose the biggest star. That’s what’s exciting. That’s what’s terrifying. We didn’t know what’s going to happen with Dorinda when she was off that first mission, when she was up for murder again, not going to lie, as a producer, it’s like, “Oh god. Can you imagine if she goes again first time?” There was no way of protecting against that, but she made her first breakfast. I don’t know whether Lisa and Candiace would have had the heart to kill her off.
Rees-Jones: She’s got Donna Kelce to thank for not shortlisting her. Dorinda was definitely worried about getting murdered first. She was delighted [when she made it to breakfast.] The standing ovation went on for some time at breakfast when she walked in.
Michael Rapaport almost immediately became this season’s villain. Was that something you expected from him?
Rees-Jones: We genuinely never know how people are going to react in the game. We obviously talked to them ahead of coming to Scotland, but we never know how the game is going to be for those people. We did know that Michael loves this show, he loves the game and he was always going to throw himself into the game fully. He did that with intensity, but he just had a genuine love for the game and he’s playing it quite hard.
Most of the twists have already been resolved by Episode 3, and we’ve already seen the murder in plain sight. What can you tease about additional twists to come?
Rees-Jones: We have got some really exciting things to come. We’re so excited to see the audience reactions to the series as a whole, and some specific moments. It’s very satisfying when we take the players by surprise, and really when we take the audience by surprise as well. There was a great moment mid-series where the players were completely wrong footed. We’re testing the faithful this year. We’re testing the traitors more than we ever have done, and it was really exciting to see how they reacted to it, and we can’t wait to see the audience’s response to that.
What do you think about the strategy of the murders and the banishments so far, and which one hurt the most to lose so early in the season?
Rees-Jones: We will always be ready for anyone going at any point in this series. Sometimes we’re sad about people going early, but we’ve gotten used to it now. We will never be able to predict a boot order on this show. We will always get it wrong.
I’ve loved the roundtables so far. The early roundtables, sometimes they don’t have much to go off, but there’s such compelling roundtables where the players have thrown themselves into it. They’ve had strong suspicions, be it Ron [Funches] throwing a lot of heat to Porsha [Williams], be it Michael going hard. They’re playing hard. They’re making moves, and it’s been really exciting to watch.
Cotton: Some of their murders have been clever, right? Rob [Cesternino] was a clever player. He was very observant, whether [that was] his luck or skill. That was probably a clever murder for them.
Rob C was also having his reality comeback and it didn’t last too long. Would you consider giving him the Dorinda treatment next season? What’s the line in terms of considering bringing a player back for another round?
Rees-Jones: I don’t think we’ll ever reveal what our future casting plans are. It was sad to see Rob go so early, and he’s had a long time away from these type of shows. He’s such a smart player, and his murder was an exciting murder — one of my favorite murders we’ve had. He called it completely right, and that just shows what a smart player he is.
With both the first three episodes and rest of the season in mind, which player surprised you the most?
Rees-Jones: We don’t want to ever give anything away. Every one of them has been bringing it. I think that’s the thing. They’ve all been just completely immersed from the very off. It’s a big cast on “The Traitors” and people get lost quite easily, but if they throw themselves into the game, if they immerse themselves in the murder mystery, then it’s great to watch. And I feel like they’ve played harder than they’ve ever done before.
Cotton: I mean, looking at the first three episodes, I will say the Housewives are better at keeping secrets than I thought.
“The Traitors” Season 4 releases new episodes Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT on Peacock.
