It is incredibly risky to tamper with the formula of a hit TV show and expect loyal fans to be on board. In the case of The Traitors, though, it was essential.
After three series, it was easier and easier for players to pre-empt the decisions of producers, and after a celebrity version so brilliant it threatened to eclipse the original, there was no way this year’s could avoid feeling repetitive or even stale by comparison without making changes. Sure, I’d still have watched it and would definitely still have loved it, but the risk of diminishing returns was too great – the more times we see this format play out, the sooner it runs out of road.
So I wasn’t hugely surprised when Claudia Winkleman – fresh from her final series of Strictly and soon to be the face of her own BBC One chat show – announced that there will be a Secret Traitor, whose identity is unknown to both Faithfuls and Traitors, giving the (absolutely seething) Traitors a shortlist of who they can murder each night.
Everyone likes to think they know what would make The Traitors even better, and one of the most common suggestions to improve the game is exactly this: keeping a Traitor secret and allowing the audience to guess along with the Faithfuls. So here’s our chance. Will it prove more immersive, participatory and intriguing than ever? Or – as is my fear – will it make it frustrating to watch?
I love guessing games, but that’s not why I watch The Traitors. What makes this an unpredictable, thrilling delight for me has been precisely the superior feeling that I know something the players don’t, anticipating how they will react and the decisions they will make, and analysing endlessly what those reveal both about their personalities and about human behaviour.
Claudia Winkleman is back – and things are more sinister than ever (Photo: Cody Burridge/BBC/Studio Lambert)Now, like them, I only have part of the puzzle. I can’t scrutinise and judge and talk about what I would do instead because I haven’t really got a clue. I’m already feeling helpless, and it’s maddening.
The Celebrity Traitors showed us that even a small shift in the programme – in that case, existing relationships and reputations and the hierarchy of fame – transforms this into an entirely different game. Likewise, the Secret Traitor makes this series altogether new. The Traitors have previously been the ultimate villains, an omniscient axis of deception who plot together and when the time is right, discard and overthrow one another.
You can already see how furious our new trio are to have been robbed of this power – to have a silent puppeteer calling the shots while they protest they do not need a middle manager. It is not the game they signed up for and all of their game plans have gone out the window. They were the enemy – now they have one of their own, and all their interactions will be different from those made by Traitors that came first.
Which is especially infuriating for them given they, and everyone else cast this year, were chomping at the bit to get a cloak. There are usually some good eggs in the bunch who, in their initial meeting with Claudia, are adamant they have come in to witch hunt traitors, and are devastated if, say, they are recruited to the dark side. It is an interesting casting decision this year that the overwhelming majority of players wanted an excuse to stir the pot and were hungry for their first kills. I am curious to see how that streak will affect the behaviour of the Faithfuls – and for those anointed Traitors, how ruthlessly they will be out for the Secret Traitor’s blood.
I didn’t think The Traitors could get any more brutal, but already I can feel this more sinister edge of the series. This darker new dimension might make the game more exciting than ever – but as viewers are forced to change how they watch it and stay playing themselves, some may lose patience and wish Studio Lambert hadn’t tried to fix what wasn’t yet broken. A shake-up like this with the biggest TV sensation of the decade is a bold gamble – I hope, for all our sakes, it pays off.
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