Truth be told… I’ve just in recent years started on my reality competition show adventure. Now decently well versed in such shows as Survivor, Big Brother, The Amazing Race, and The Challenge - season three of The Traitors was the first time I ever set my eyes on the proceedings under Alan Cumming’s rule. What I gathered after 3 episodes is that this show is full of twists, maniacal tactics, idiotic behavior and just a cherry of a host that brings an extra needed energy. 

 

Alan Cumming’s personality on The Traitors is essentially what if Vincent Price hosted a game show today. His take on hosting duties delivers an over exaggerated personality that somehow outdoes all the reality personalities on screen. From his eccentric, yet fabulous wardrobe, to just how he manages the ceremonies of the game, Cumming is one of the better hosts working today and is worthy of the awards attention he’s been receiving. 

 

Similar to MTV’s The Challenge, The Traitors places a random assortment of reality TV personalities from all across the board: Housewives, Survivors, Biggest Losers, Drag Racers and so forth… The contestants naturally clash in a game of paranoia, some familiar with the mental games at play from their own shows and others unknowing of what’s to come. 

 

The concept takes a household full of people and blindly selects three of them to possess the power of being “traitors”. From then the traitors need to hide amongst the crowd until nightfall and then can come out of the shadows to choose a victim to “murder” (send out of the game). Each episode consists of a challenge that can earn immunity from being murdered, a roundtable where the whole cast selects a suspicious person to banish from the game and then the traitors ceremony at the end.

 

The Traitors is thrilling and fully immersive, if you go in with a favorite in mind - mine being Bob Harper (The Biggest Loser) and Boston Rob (Survivor, Deal or No Deal Island) - then things can get even more intense as contestants can be eliminated for really any reason. The only downside of the show as a whole is the challenges thus far aren’t the most exciting to watch play out, most of the intrigue comes from within the manor they reside in.  

 

A fantastic host, an unbelievable cast of characters from all walks of reality TV life and a thrillingly addictive sense of not knowing what’s gonna happen next - The Traitors might be my new favorite reality competition show. For a newcomer to the series like myself, it’s easy to pick up the torch and watch season 3 with no necessary backtracking, but it’s easy to see that once this season is over - the first two will be binged in a flash.