Alan Granville is a Travel Reporter at Stuff, and is hooked on The Traitors UK reality TV show.
OPINION: It was the TV show that gripped a nation, well at least my social media feeds, towards the end of last year.
Building from a rather inauspicious start to becoming vital water cooler conversation, The Traitors was a bona fide hit on UK screens, the twists and turns dissected every night as villains walked amongst their victims, and innocent contestants were cruelly vanquished, often on a whim. It was essential viewing, and now it is coming here, with a New Zealand version imminent.
The Traitors will be your new favourite reality show. Here’s why.
The premise is simple as
Pretty much the whole set-up is an expanded version of the Wink Murder party game. There are traitors in the group and the idea is to expose them while not getting “murdered” off yourself.
In the UK version a rather overwhelming-to-start cast of 22 (it gets reduced very quickly in a cruel twist) meet outside a Scottish castle by host Claudia Winkleman (more on her later). After some intros, the group are sat blindfolded around a circular table whereby three of them will be designated “traitors” by a touch on their shoulders by Winkleman. Their mission now is to bump off the rest of the cast, known as “faithfuls”, without drawing attention to themselves or being exposed.
Each night the group as a whole vote someone off they believe is a traitor, and it’s fascinating to watch as they collectively single out people, most often wrongly and sometimes without any help from the traitors themselves, who sit back at times bemused as the faithfuls squabble amongst themselves.
Those who survive the chop are whisked away from the castle, while the traitors are brought back in full cult-like cloaks as they decide which faithful to “murder” off, a decision which is only revealed the next morning at breakfast. Watching the traitors “act” surprised at what’s going on is half the fun.
How does anyone win and what’s the prize?
Each episode has some form of challenge, either physical or mental, whereby the battle lines are forgotten for a bit and everyone, traitor and faithful, chip in to try and increase the cash pot.
Unlike a similar concept like The Mole (another outstanding format IMHO), no one is out to sabotage the challenges.
But to win the overall prize fund, the faithfuls have to weed out all the traitors. If they don’t, any traitor left standing at the final will walk away with the full prize.
This led to one of the most incredible single-hours on TV as the final episode of the BBC version proved to be a brutal roller coaster of emotions. Tears, revelations and a betrayal that was truly jaw-dropping. Outstanding stuff.
BBC
The cast of the UK version of The Traitors.
How many versions are there?
Well the format comes from the never-ending reality TV factory that is the Netherlands (Big Brother, Fear Factor, The Voice etc). An Australian version last year didn’t set the world alight, but is getting a second season.
The US version uses the same Scottish setting as the British but is populated with a mix of reality show veterans and clearly those who aim to emulate them. It’s a loud, angry version pretty typical of US competition shows.
What makes the UK version the best?
Simple – the cast and host.
Now I have to say I have a complete soft spot for actor Alan Cumming as the host of the US version. A menacing, yet empathetic vision in tartan, he absolutely shines, but it is Claudia Winkleman and her increasingly aggressive knits who expertly guides the viewer through all the shenanigans. A very familiar face on UK TV, Traitors offers a more cut-throat version of Winkleman, and she does it with complete aplomb.
She sets the tone but also gets genuinely wrapped up in the excitement. Not just a host, she’s part of the cast too. A special mention has to go to the wardrobe department too; never has a chunky luxe polo neck been worn so well.
The other reason of course is the casting. Unlike the US version, these are every day people you can relate to – the call centre worker, the hairdresser, the estate agent, all ages and life experiences. The closest to a ‘reality-show-type’ would be property agent Alex, who looks like he has wandered in off the set of Love Island. However, his demeanour and overall sweetness soon counter that assumption.
Also the cast genuinely looks like that they haven’t got a clue what is going on half the time. This was the first series in a format they had never seen. There was no rule book, it’s like the very first Big Brother in the UK. Of course the usual alliances and cliques are formed as the numbers drop away, but future cast members won’t be so innocent.
THREE/Supplied
The Traitors NZ cast. The Kiwi version has decided to go all-in with just ‘celebrities’.
Will New Zealand’s Traitors work?
Claudia has her knits, Alan his flashy tartan, and Paul Henry has … a fedora.
His announcement as host was certainly a bit left field, coming out of his own “semi-retirement”. It will be interesting to see if he emotes anything other than menace, which could lose its ‘charm’ pretty quickly. Hopefully some humour will appear too.
“Here I am lording it up over a group of semi-scared individuals in an isolated place,” he said as the show’s cast was announced. “That is so me, and I relished it.”
The Kiwi version has decided to go all-in with just ‘celebrities’, although the caveat here is that the ‘c’ in celebrity is pretty small.
It could work in the show’s favour as the viewing public may not have pre-conceived opinions on the cast beforehand, and the format itself will paper over the lack of A-listers.
Only time will tell if the public will stay faithful to the show.
The Traitors NZ starts on Three and ThreeNow on August 7.
