The Traitors has been a breakout hit in the unscripted world, with one exec saying that it did for the global formats genre what Top Gun: Maverick did for the summer blockbuster.
For Deadline’s Contenders Television: Documentary + Unscripted event, host Alan Cumming, contestants Cirie Fields and Kate Chastain and exec producer Toni Ireland talked up the James Bond- and Cruella de Vil-style outfits, Fields’ winning strategy and how the show will change for its second season on Peacock.
Cumming never had hosted a reality series before and said he played it up like a “James Bond villain.” “I loved how fun and inventive I could be with this. I’m basically playing a character … so it’s subverting the form in a way,” he said.
His outfits were notable, particularly the plaid kilts and capes. “Capes are the new black,” he joked.
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Below Deck star Chastain also got into costume. “Twelve years of Catholic school uniforms, six years of Below Deck uniform, I was ready to bring my Cruella de Vil out,” she added.
Fields, who has appeared on Survivor a number of times, won in spectacular fashion as a traitor, having persuaded Quentin Jiles and Andie Vanacore that she was a faithful.
“I don’t feel like I did anything that dreadful,” she said. “And I won. I definitely wouldn’t change that.”
Chastain wasn’t surprised that Fields won. “Nobody really brought up Cirie at the roundtables, but I think we all knew in the back of our head, but she’s just so darn likable,” she said. “It’s like if you’re dating someone and you have a feeling they’re cheating on you, but you don’t want to know, you just kind of turn a blind eye.”
She admitted that despite some run-ins with fellow cast members, she did want to win. “I just really wanted to make it as far as possible, despite what it seemed like because I had a lot of cute outfits I wanted to show off. Let’s face it, it’s kind of a popularity contest, and nobody wants to get sent home. I was happy to make it as far as I did. But my strategy was the opposite of Cirie’s. Hers was like to be likable. And mine was not so much that.”
The show has become a big hit in the UK on the BBC as well as getting buzz on Peacock. It is produced by Studio Lambert, which produced the U.S. version and UK version at the same Scottish castle.
Studio Lambert’s Ireland said “[Season 2] will be instantly different because the players will have seen the show. The big thing about Season 1 was that the players hadn’t seen the season before … now people are thinking they know how to play it. It’s our job to make sure that certain things will be different so that they never truly know exactly what’s going to happen.”
Check back Monday for the panel video.
