The Show's Most Magnificent Host
Who better to play the role of murder mystery dinner party host than the Emmy- and Golden Globe-nominated actor Alan Cumming? Not only is the Brit consistently dazzling in his traditional Scottish garb (including the finest of kilts, trousers and berets), but Cumming puts his West End and Broadway experience to perfect use, adding heaps of theatrical flair to his role.
The Traitors could’ve used any ol’ TV host or quasi-celeb to emcee this duplicitous reality competition, but having a veteran of the stage — one with a sly sense of humor who isn’t afraid to serve full-on camp — takes this castle-set mystery game to the next level. Cumming lights up the screen in every scene he’s in, puppet-mastering the whole shebang like a modern-day Willy Wonka. He’s not afraid to deliver monologues tongue fully in cheek, but he also never shies away from amping up the drama during the show’s biggest edge-of-your-seat moments. You certainly can’t say this about every reality host, but the show simply wouldn’t be the same without him.
This was such a great new series. I can’t wait for season 2. Perfect cast and perfect host.
I love this. Watched the Aussie and Brit versions already. I think the Aussie one was the best. They were ruthless but this was a close second. The Brit version was a bit slower. They’re players I felt played it to safe. Only thing is the challenges were exactly the same so I kind of skipped through to the end of the challenges in this version. But the plotting and round tables were awesome.
Alan Cummings was the best host out of the three…he added a lot of personality to the game.
Uk host was the best x10 – Alans put on fake accent was distracting.
That’s his real voice he’s from Scotland lol
100% is not his real voice, he sounded like a cartoon character. I have seen him talk before with his accent, and it was not that.
He is Scottish. That is exactly how he speaks.
Whiteass Wally? The Albino kid?
I liked her too, she gave an edgy take on it
I watched the Aussie version,, but the ending was flawed in my opinion. (That’s all I can say without spoilers). They need to limit the recruits to 1 and make sure they let them know (they did for the first one only)
Sorry, but I don’t pay streaming prices for networks to produce cheap reality shows. I want scripted programming with good production values. I dropped Peacock when they cancelled Queer as Folk and I’m certainly not resubscribing for this.
I’m crying, lol. No one needed to know this.
This is not an airport. No need to announce your departure. If you didn’t like the show that is fine but you should have just left it at that.
LOL Troy have to remember that line, …Not an airport no need to announce departure. Made me laugh ty for that:-)
This was so good! Really just the right combination of personalities, some were very sweet, some were ruthless, some were idiots, some were funny as heck. The final result was because of impeccable game play. One person in particular had a pretty darned flawless social game. I loved Alan Cumming in this. He was channeling Dr. Evil every time he said ‘A quarter of a meeeelion dollars!’ Also his outfits were fabulous.
My son and I were excited about this show.
Unfortunately, we were let down in the very first episode when we learned the identities of the traitors.
It would have been so much fun to”play along” with the game. We love a good murder mystery.
We made it through the first episode but haven’t felt the pull to watch more, especially after reading this article. We aren’t fans of torture. I do not want to see anyone buried alive.
Thank you, TVLine, for helpng us make a decision on the show. Maybe I’ll watch just for Alan Cummings and fast forward through the rest.
Completely disagree. The whole fun of this show is that we know who the traitors are from the start, and we watch two teams battle it out. Knowing who they are adds so much to the show, as we can hear explanations of who was killed off each night and get their perspective playing the game from a different angle. We get to judge the faithful contestants for being so stupid and missing all the clues that are obvious to the viewer. It is why this show is great and different.
The show is called, “The Traitors,” so it makes sense that we get their perspective. Plus, when it comes down to the final episode, you will see why it is critical that we know their identities.
You have 100% missed the point of the series. I absolutely detest reality TV, but this, this show, is absolutely amazing.
I really disagree on your take. That would be like a show that already exists – The Mole. The best part of the show is watching The Traitors behind the scenes.
It’s like, what if we took all the charm of the mole away and filled it with people you hate so much you can’t sit still for an hour? Traitors.
Just go watch the mole on Netflix, it doesn’t give you the identity episode one and it’s just way better.
To me this sounds totally uninteresting.
The big problem with the show is that the traitors can win the money so they aren’t doing any sabotage. This makes the faithfuls having to make complete guesses with little reasoning on who the traitors are.
But the funny part is the first episode each of the traitors were mentioned by someone thinking they may be traitors. They just got lost in the sauce and focused on other things.
Loved it. Like you said fresh and suspenseful.
Even the marvelous Alan Cummings isn’t enough to persuade me to watch this. Buried alive for an hour? Rats and vermin? Big NO.
Came across this be happy accident. ONLY “Reality” show I’ve enjoyed watching. I was actually nervous when the faithful got to close tot he traitors.
I thought the UK version was better. And if you watch both versions, it’s painful to sit through the exact same missions all over again. It feels like watching a rerun.
THIS
The UK version is better in every possible respect including the choice of host. I binned the US version half way through episode 1.
You missed way better moments than UK provided, then!
Hard pass.
i flew through the British one at the end of 2022 and was obsessed, it was so good and dramtic and fun and i was worried with the USA version and the reality stars. I was so surpised and happy and also flew through the USA version, i just wish sometimes they werent exact copies of challeneges. I also liked that the US contestants weere made to stay in the house (maybe?) and the Brits were shuttled away lol.
The Aussie one was the best still in my opinion. They had the best Traitors.
But the editing was awful. We didn’t really know most of the players who made it deep in the game. It seems to be typical of most Aus reality shows I’ve seen – they focus on just a few characters.
Claudia Winkleman, the host of the UK version is easily the best host. While Alan Cumming is Scottish he has said in interviews that he created a character for the host and approached it as an acting job and not a presenting job.
I’d say that between the UK/US version I prefer the UK overall but cripes there was some almighty bitches in the US one (Kate/Brandi).
Both series had good and bad points, both well worth watching.
This article is spot on. One of the best reality TV shows I’ve seen in years!
I loved every minute of this. I hope it’s renewed.
I haven’t seen this, but it sounds just like The Hustler, maybe with a bit of Fear Factor mixed in? The even both use Scottish comedians as hosts! I don’t think this is for me.
I really enjoyed it but I kind of wish they didn’t reveal if the banished were traitors or faithful. It blew my mind that SPOILERS
The two faithful at the end voted to end the game with only two traitors being sniffed out. Didn’t they know there were going to be three? They didn’t know about the addition but ending it with four and only two traitors being exposed would have guaranteed that the faithful lost right?
What I’ve heard in interviews is they were told there could be between 2-5 traitors during the season, so they never knew the exact number.
I binged it over last weekend and am so bummed I don’t have more to watch this weekend. Hoping for a season 2!
The show is amazing, but the star of the show is the host. I bet good money he’ll win an Emmy for TV host. Can’t wait for season 2!
I had a free afternoon so I binged all the episodes after reading the TV line article about the show this morning. I hadn’t seen any advertisement for it and I actually had to hunt to find it on Peacock, so they really need to do a better job of promotion if they want people to watch the shows that they’re spending money to make. That aside, I really enjoyed the series. There were a variety of personalities but no one that I absolutely detested. It reminded me of the Mole and as others have said, I would like some occasional sabotage happening to make it more interesting, but I don’t want them going the Big Brother route where they constantly throw competitions either. If they could find a way to balance that so there is more risk for the Traitors when they make their moves then it would improve the gameplay and get the other players to focus on what they see instead of the personalities they dislike. A solid first season for sure. I’m off to track down the UK and Australian versions that everyone is talking about.
I forgot to add that I liked knowing what the Traitors were from the first episode. It made me more invested in their strategizing and how it affected the other players. With The Mole, I was still invested because I like the show and premise, but it was a different experience having to guess and go off of what the players saw/learned because we all know how much they edit stuff so I wasn’t sure if they were trying to trick us all into believing someone else was the Mole to surprise us in the finale. Two great games with different points of view.
Plot of this show sounds eerily familiar to the plot of the CW show Killer Camp.
Well.. except they don’t recreate any actual murders.. Which kind of made the whole show seem fake since we assume they aren’t actually killing people. Also once they found the killer early on, they just kept adding more killers until they had enough episodes to make a season.