The Traitors is a reality game show franchise created by the All3Media company IDTV which originally aired on RTL 4 in the Netherlands in 2021.[2]
Gameplay
The players are divided into two groups: the "Faithfuls" and the "Traitors," with only the latter group having knowledge of each other's group affiliation. The Faithfuls must work together to identify and eliminate the Traitors through banishment before the end of the game, while the Traitors' objective is to remain undetected and escape banishment.
On most nights, the Traitors come together and decide upon one Faithful contestant to "murder" – and that person will leave the game immediately. The remaining Faithful contestants will not know who has been eliminated until the following day when that person does not enter the room for breakfast. The group then take part in a mission to win money for the prize fund. In some versions, the missions offered an opportunity for players to visit the armoury – during which players will randomly and secretly be awarded the shield. In other versions, the shield is only available to obtain during the missions. Holding a shield awards a player immunity from being murdered, but not from the Banishment Vote. An attempted murder on the shield holder will result in no player being eliminated by Murder.
At the end of most days, the players will participate in a Round Table, where the players discuss who to vote out before individually voting for a player to be banished. Players cast their votes privately before revealing their votes in turn to everyone once all votes are locked-in and may give a brief rationale for their vote. The person who received the most votes for banishment is banished from the game and must reveal which group (Faithfuls or Traitors) they belonged to. During the game, if the number of remaining Traitors drops to two, they will be given the option to recruit a Faithful to join them in lieu of committing a murder. The Faithful will have the option to decline, and declining may or may not result in them being murdered immediately. If the Faithful accepts, they become a Traitor from that point on.
After the final round table, the remaining players vote whether to end the game or to continue the game. A unanimous vote to end the game is required; if there is at least one vote to continue, another banishment vote is immediately conducted, before repeating the vote to end the game with the remaining players. When a unanimous vote to end the game occurs, or when there are only two players left, the remaining players reveal whether they are a Faithful or a Traitor. If the remaining players are Faithfuls, they will share the prize fund; but if any Traitors make it to the end, they will win the full prize fund instead.[3]
The number of players varies season to season and from franchise to franchise. The number of Traitors that start the game also varies season to season. In some versions, the players are celebrities.
Season 1, 2021–22: Philippe Scofield and Pholien Systermans (Faithfuls)
Season 2, 2023: Vanessa Matagne (Traitor)
Season 3, 2024: Toma Nikiforov (Traitor)[5]
Season 1, 2023: Ágnes "Ági" Szabados [hu], Orsi Tapasztó and Tamás "Moha" Mohai (Faithfuls)
Season 2, 2024: Enikő Muri, Izabell "Iza" Url and Krisztina "Kriszta" Hadas [hu] (Faithfuls)
Season 3, 2024: Gáspár Róka (Traitor)[25]
Season 4, 2025: Upcoming season
Series 1, 2022: Aaron Evans, Hannah Byczkowski and Meryl Williams (Faithfuls) Series 2, 2024: Harry Clark (Traitor) Series 3, 2025: Jake Brown and Leanne Quigley (Faithfuls)
Series 4, TBD: Upcoming series
^While there were three Traitors who made it to the final round, they subsequently lost the prize money after the "Traitor's Dilemma."
^An unofficial version of the format is broadcast in Russia (the show is produced despite the fact that the Russian broadcaster nor production company haven't purchased a licence – which is a repercussion of the Russian invasion of Ukraine).[40]
