Right, Week One Tuesday 9:30pm, Wednesday 9:15pm, Thursday 9pm, subsequent weeks I don’t know, roll a dice or something.
BBC1The three episodes for the week go up on iPlayer after the first episode of the week. Got it? Not after week one they aren’t.
Finally Studio Lambert’s interpretation of Dutch success story De Verraders makes its way to BBC1 in a scheduling style that’s extremely confident but could yet end up being quite a long month if it doesn’t work out very well.
The Traitors is two-games-in-one really. The main narrative is basically a game of Werewolf writ large – 22 people arrive at a Scottish castle, three of them are designated Traitors, the other 19 are The Faithful. The Traitors have to work as a team to eliminate The Faithful one by one so that they outnumber them in the end and claim the money for themselves, The Faithful must eliminate The Traitors but don’t know who they can trust. Every day everyone votes to banish a member of the group out of the game, hoping to remove a Traitor. At night, the Traitors come together and “murder” a member of The Faithful – perhaps they were getting too close to the truth, perhaps they’re a useful patsy. Very different from something like The Mole, we as the audience are in on who The Traitors are and can watch them scheme as they try and outmanoeuvre the crowd.
That alone isn’t going to fill twelve hours, so in between the shouting at each other there are challenges to win up to £120,000 worth of bars of silver gold coins (because presumably the kids are too thick to understand the Judas Iscariot allegory now) and they look exciting and spectacular. Again however, differently from The Mole all contestants are pulling in the same direction – all winning surviving contestants on the winning side will share in whatever the prize pot is.
I am a bit worried as to how they’re going to square the circle of Werewolf, a game that has no fixed time limit really – it could be over in three rounds, it could be over in eleven – will be parcelled out to fit an exact twelve episode order. I know foreign versions have tended to just add more Traitors if some get eliminated early, I’m not entirely convinced the British public will just let that go if that happens here. We also have quite unusual “hunt the show” scheduling – I know they’re going big on iPlayer with this, but surely if this really takes off you want everyone to be watching the final episodes at the same time for maximum impact. They’re giving this the best possible chance – the first episode goes out after England vs Wales at the World Cup, which should be a ginormous lead-in, and getting Claudia Winkleman on board lends it an air of “you trust me on Strictly, you can trust me on this” respectability on what might feel like quite a complex show initially. Studio Lambert have done The Circle and Race Across the World, so they’ve proved they’ve got some chops in this adventure reality area. I’m hoping it’s really good, but I can’t be 100% sure it’s going to be successful. It’s done pretty well in many territories, but it’s also flopped.
Let us know what you think of the show in the comments. We currently have a Traitors Chat channel running in the Discord for episodic discussion.
The Traitors has just won Best Reality And Factual Entertainment at Rose d’Or, so there’s that.
Looks like probably finishing Thursday 22nd.
First eps are always quite difficult and nice shots of Scotland aside, I thought this took a bit too long to get going. It probably needed to get straight into a challenge or just anything really, although the initial elimination was a genuine moment of shock. I thought the challenge was OK, it’s a pity the Wickermen being alight didn’t look all that impressive. It’s a shame about Claudia’s ADR, she’s was great otherwise.
But once the cloak and dagger stuff started that was it, I’m bought in now, it’s so overwrought and ridiculous and I love it and I can’t wait to see what happens next. And I’ll have to, because I was watching with family and we’re continuing over dinner tomorrow.
I think the soundtrack was pretty good, hope that gets a release at some point.
I still have possible misgivings about Traitor flipping, I think it becomes basically impossible to win as a member of the Faithful except in quite unusual circumstances – we’ll see.
Didn’t like it, I’m afraid, having gone in expecting to.
The pace is far too slow (more than half an hour to get to the first proper challenge?), the challenge itself seemed a bit arbitrary (why split people into two teams and have them compete against each other when both teams win cash for the pot and there’s no penalty/gameplay disadvantage for the losing side?) and the cast (most of whom were extremely annoying) is far too big to be able to recall more than a few players.
Pales in comparison to the Netflix Mole reboot which I really enjoyed but Twitter reaction seemed to be broadly positive so what do I know?
Under three mill for ep 1. It was a slow start but uh-oh…
I have only watched the first episode so far so no spoilers from me…
The same issues for me from the Australian format remain. How are people expected to know who The Traitors are? They are playing for the same prize fund and don’t have to do anything risky that may blow their cover. It’s also really easy to gang up on a player to get them voted off. That is what happened in the Australian version the loud interesting players went first. People just voted off who they didn’t like under the guise of I think that person is a traitor with no real reason. Seems like this is going to happen here too. Also as soon as a faithful was on to a traitor they were murdered Instantly
Why did the task need to be split into 2 teams playing against eachother each playing for a different amount when it goes to the same pot ?
I also don’t like the vibe of the show. The Australian one had a more murder mystery vibe which suited the format better. I was right on Claudia completely unsuitable for this show. She was great on one question but is not right here at all. Her personality is fighting against what the tone should be.
However it’s not all bad, there is a good cast of players and personalities. A good opening twist but somehow I dont think it’s the last we have seen of them. The opening challenge was better than most of the challenges in The Australian version.
I will keep at it and see how the next episodes pan out
Under two mill for Ep 2. We won’t know the full story until the consolidated numbers come out, but you’d assume if it was going great guns on iPlayer BBC Press might say something.
Apparently they *aren’t* dropping the weekly episodes up front now. Innovative iPlayer strategy!
Here’s where I am so far: I’m still watching it and *basically* enjoying it, but other than the initial elimination shock it’s taken too long for anything to actually happen, the eliminations feel much more toothless than I was anticipating – especially the murder, which was a load of rubbish to be honest, having been built up so well the night previous to have it end with ten minutes of people drip feeding into breakfast and than someone sat in a chair reading a message saying “you’ve been murdered” really wasn’t worth the wait.
Fantasy Producer time. I think if this gets a series two the Traitors should be selected before the show even starts and they should be aware of the *names* of the other Traitors, but they shouldn’t actually *officially meet* in Traitor Tower until after the first Round Table, which will happen a few hours after everyone gets to the castle. Claudia can explain the situation to everyone so everyone at least has a chance to watch for flickers of recognition, for example. Hopefully some immediate friction ensues, someone goes home a few hours after getting there. If the Traitors do a bad job then at least it’s so early they can be replaced and it won’t break the show too much.
Murders need to be more *brutal* not as in *actually murder*, but once the warrant has been signed, Claudia pins it to a door and we never see or hear from them on the show again. None of this nice-nicey stuff in the confessional, let everyone fill in their own blanks. No goodbye, they’re gone.
Ep3 probably the first one I’ve thought “yes, I AM actually enjoying this.”
Well, it’s all over the place for me thus far. Episode one was a drag, episode two actually quite good, but those moments in the third episode have me wondering if I’m going to enjoy it going forward. The challenges, which were part of the intrigue for me, are really quite dull and absolutely agree about the murders themselves being rubbish. I was expecting the victim to disappear in some over the top way, maybe a quick cut or a jump-scare or something and that be it. Release the Hounds did it better.
When I spoke to my mum about it, she said she wasn’t going to watch because “the trailer was just people arguing”. Perhaps others felt the same?
What a load of shit.
Over hyped… “it’s worked in the Netherlands!” We’ll that proved nothing!
That is just it, because there is nothing concrete to go off it’s just somebody putting a name out, some arguing and then everybody else just voting for that person because they don’t want to be the one voted off.
With The Mole it was about you knowing who The Mole was and you did not need a group consensus. One of the female contestants has one of The Traitors pegged but she can’t get enough support to vote for that person and it now puts her in serious danger of being murdered.
The Traitors have too much in their favour. I really think that they should have to stop money going into the pot and every £ then goes into a separate Traitor pot it will make the format more balanced and less of a guessing game.
Episode 1 was quite slow moving. I like the Columbo aspect of knowing the Traitors. I’m not sure how its possible for a non-traitor to win. Apparently if one traitor is eliminated, a new one is added? We might find out soon with Wilf.
The cliffhanger aspect works well, though I’ve gone from thinking this is slow and doesn’t work, to cursing the 4 day wait till Episode 4.
I did chuckle at the moment that had Maddy (?) discuss her theories on the killers, stating at least she was safe with her friends group, sitting next to two of the three traitors.
It’s… I feel like I’m watching it as a non-scripted drama, rather than a gameshow.
The idea that there is nothing to go off is a bit reductive though, here are people who have to live with a dirty secret – difficult, but are also choosing their victims very deliberately to throw people off/pin the blame on others and working out why those people have been chosen *is* the game, as figuring the logic leads to the solution. It’s a social deduction game, extremely similar to gaming megahit Among Us.
The main difference, and why it might seem a bit unfair as a contestant, is that your ‘team’ normally wins these games but staying alive doesn’t normally matter in terms of getting a prize, where here it very much does.
Having played Among Us with various groups of people, some I knew some I didn’t it often turns into a blame game and who can shout the loudest. With that if you are skilled enough you can piece together what may have happened. Who was in room X, what tasks do you have remaining, what you witnessed that sort of thing. The Traitors killings happen in secret maybe doing this on a more open way like in Among Us would give the Faithful some fighting chance.
With The Traitors I understand you can look at the actions of somebody and try and make a judgement. However these are people that do not know eachother (apart from the couple) so how would they know somebody is acting out if character when they don’t know what that character is? Take Aaron for example if you know him outside of the game you would know if he was emotionally charged or weather his outburst fits in with his personality. You can’t really make that judgment after a few days. As somebody who suffers a lot from anxiety I know in a situation with a group of people who did not know me my anxiety would be incorrectly mistaken for being a Traitor.
We have seen players on The Traitors openly saying I don’t believe that person was a traitor but voted that way because everyone else did and to me that is a major flaw. Not only do you have to be right, but you also have to convince enough other players too and if you have nothing to go off it’s the Sandra strategy from Survivor (anybody but me) which leads to piling on and Faithful killings.
This is always going to be extremely hard for the faithful as we have seen as soon as a Traitor is voiced in a group with a Traitor it’s instantly shut down.
Don’t get me wrong I do think there is something in this format but it’s a much easier ride for The Traitors considering they can’t be murdered.
> into a blame game and who can shout the loudest.
Well yes, that’s basically what *all* of these games devolve into.
> We have seen players on The Traitors openly saying I don’t believe that person was a traitor but voted that way because everyone else did and to me that is a major flaw.
Of course, because then it’s *not you*. This matters a lot more if you have to get to the end to win a prize.
I cannot make my mind up on this show at all – sometimes it’s exciting and intense, sometimes it’s annoying and I hate it. I do struggle with the fact the games don’t really play into actually being able to give clues as to who the Traitors are (I was only half watching the game in ep3 so not sure if it did?). The actual ‘treachery’ is just the murder isn’t it? Doesn’t feel anywhere near the level of mole-ness you get from the Mole in… The Mole.
Agreed that the murders are super lame. Really odd that they haven’t made a bigger thing of them at all.
The cast are *very* cast-y, I think it could have done with about half the number of OTT personalities that they have in there. They made that nursery rhyme music box hyper irritating. There’s a lot of people as well, maybe could have done with fewer people and fewer episodes.
Yeah I think I’m about in the same place, it’s such a slow start, the murders are rubbish, I’m not sure the game lends itself to telly all that well (we’ll see towards the end and how it ends how contrived it becomes to set up a certain outcome), I’m not sure the challenges are adding all that much really.
But now I’m into it I have *opinions* on several members of the cast, and I’m interested to see how it all develops and it feels like a big revelation could drop at any moment and that this possibility is quite exciting. It’s sort of crap good.
So episode four led with probably the most hilariously batshit 20 minutes of reality since David’s Dead, and then that sheep challenge happened. What a dichotomy!
Ok I’m now solidly in the camp of ‘excellent and enjoyable’.
I do think it could do with all of the games being to win a shield from the beginning. There’s a lot more Big Brother US gameplay they could introduce to a second series.
It’s a shame nobody I know in real life is actually watching it. And clearly numbers haven’t been all that, even in catch up thus far. The first one consolidated to 3.8m, which would be OK if they hadn’t promoted the hell out of it, subsequent episodes under three mill, which doesn’t put it in the Top 50 for the week.
I did laugh at @jrawson’s (QI Elf, The Tournament) comment that it has “a 70% share amongst very online gays in their thirties” though, which does tally with my experience! Everyone follows the same people, basically.
The BBC will hail this as a success, they probably have to given the quantity of pr they’ve put behind it.
But surging to 2.7m (2.2m avg) doesn’t really feel like the success they would really want.
Yes, it’s finally out of the “a bit embarrassing really” bracket, but the idea that EVERYBODY IS TALKING ABOUT IT!!!! is quite a stretch – 2.7m overnight puts it roughly on the level of a good episode of Masterchef: The Professionals. Which is returnable! But if the BBC claim “these were the sorts of figures we were expecting” they’re clearly lying.
The slot average is 2.4m, according to Broadcast.
Does anyone have The Traitors card game? Is it any good?
If I can sit on the fence, I’m not sure we’ll know how successful The Traitors is as a ratings beast (or lack of one) till the second series airs. It has more momentum than it did end of November but its a slow building momentum rather than a smash hit one. When Episode 1 was broadcast, the only people I knew watching it were the people who will watch any new gameshow at least thrice, even if Gordon Ramsay is hosting it. Whereas now there’s a fair few reality TV averse folk watching it from the start after positive word of mouth from friends. I’ve managed to get a number of folk onto it on recommendation precisely because the trailers looked like the type of show I never watch! (And amusingly, I wasn’t planning to, until I saw recommendations about it from this blog. Everything’s circular!)
Basically, I think it’s going to take months on Iplayer to build up its status, if it does so, so Season 2 will tell us more. (Also, I don’t think the ratings ceiling for shows like this is massively higher than where it currently is tbh.)
And if it doesn’t, at least it gets a Second Series, unlike certain other Seagull-hosted shows you’re bored of hearing about which were on Channel 4 and had an audience of me, and tumbleweed…
“Hi, we might not have a final. Do you want free money? Love: The Producers.”
The final ending when the contestants choose to end it is ingenious, fair play.
Three things post finale (so, you know, maybe spoilers here):
1) I’d love to see the show bible. Because ‘you decide when the show ends’ doesn’t feel like it would have worked with just 3 traitors (ie if Wilf hadn’t persuaded Kieran to be a Traitor). If they hadn’t picked Wilf before final 4, would they have just kept going?
2) My worry last week was the endgame was going to be prisoners dilemma as other editions had been. Thank you for not doing this.
3) Wilf’s final speech was incredible. When do you ever see someone say ‘I lost £100k but I’m glad you’ve voted for me because I hated the role I was given’. And it felt like he meant every word. What a hero. Although that – and Kieran’s parting shot – felt like big flaws in the format from a fairness POV.
If it had been two traitors at the end I think they would have gone down the share or shaft route 🙂
As for Wilf sorry not buying it at all. He said multiple times he was there for the money I don’t think for one second he was happy he didn’t walk away with the lot. He screwed over all 3 other traitors. I am particularly annoyed by his treatment of Amanda but that’s the game I guess. He would have taken that money and laughed in their faces. He blamed Keiron but it was his actions by saying I’ll never talk to you again that sealed it. He should have continued with the nicey nicey we are a team approach.
At the end of the game Meryl voted green. She almost cost the other two the game. I would have gone back in and voted her off for that at the end and just split 50/50.
I wonder what would have happened if that had taken place maybe they would have done share or shaft in that situation too?
The ending was far better than The Australian version.
I think for any season 2 they need to look at more ways to make it harder for the traitors. As you can see right up until the end nobody had a clue, which to me says it was too much of an easy ride for The Traitors. Also pointed out the murders are a bit tame and that kiss of death didn’t work. They should have made it they both had to kiss him.
I also think the host needs to be changed. Claudia not the right fit for this at all. She is much more suited to One Question or Strictly
The Traitors US coming to iPlayer on January 13th.
Available now on sightly more “dubious” sources (I’m a traitor to the iPlayer HA!)
The good news is it seems to have been produced by Studio Lambert so if you liked the UK version you’ll like this one too (apart from perhaps the familiar challenges but you can let them off for that considering first season), it hasn’t been made OTT American style for a change