Unscripted TV’s ubiquity means a person doesn’t need to have seen a single episode of “Vanderpump Rules” to understand why casting Tom Sandoval in Season 3 of “The Traitors” is an evil genius move. You only have to know what he’s semi-famous for.
Even if you don’t, here’s a primer: Early in the 10th season run of “Vanderpump Rules," news broke that Sandoval had been cheating on his longtime girlfriend Ariana Madix with her "best friend" Raquel (née Rachel) Leviss off-camera. Both were his fellow castmates.
Madix, understandably, was heartbroken. You might not have known that if you only watched the show and somehow existed apart from social media feeds and gossip rag headlines screaming forth in your grocery store’s checkout aisle. Every new “Vanderpump Rules” episode was behind the real-time dirt-slinging, affording the public the chance to watch reality slap across the face of unscripted artificiality.
#Scandoval was such a phenomenon that even non-Vanderpumpers couldn’t completely shut it out, guaranteeing Sandoval’s infamy. But his very public loss of esteem is the “Traitors” audience’s gain since its divinely clever host Alan Cumming can’t resist taking a swipe.
Everyone arrives at Ardross Castle with the desire to be either a Faithful or a Traitor and makes their case to Cumming’s devious nobleman. Reacting to Sandoval’s strong feelings about which camp he wants to be in, the host asks his prey whether he’d feel betrayed if he goes against his desire. Then, shrugging, Cumming coos to Sandoval, “Doesn’t feel so nice, does it?”
Ah “Traitors.” How we’ve missed you. The betrayal! The overacting! The secret killers shedding crocodile tears over breakfast of smoked salmon! Few pleasures make cold cruelty warm the soul quite as well, because few look at the genre with such a knowing blend of appreciation and haughtiness.
Cumming and the producers know they’re playing with people who love being the center of attention and love winning — and manipulate their pridefulness to reduce them to wrecks. It is also familiar, since “Traitors” is essentially a party game that follows similar rules to Mafia or Werewolf.
The show leans hard into the game’s murder mystery literary underpinnings, and Cummings’ guests embrace their situation’s theatricality while taking each development a bit too personally.
In the opening episode, Cumming’s flamboyant laird secretly taps a certain number of players to be secret Traitors while the rest play as Faithfuls. Each day, they compete in challenges to build up a jackpot that could be worth up to $250,000.
Every night they hold a roundtable where they banish someone by majority vote. As that person departs, they reveal whether they’re a Faithful or Traitor. Then, when everyone goes to sleep, the Traitors get to work, murdering someone else.
The Faithfuls want to banish the Traitors among them because if any make it to the final round, they’ll claim the winnings and the good guys get nothing. This time around, in addition to eliminating the requirement for players to reveal whether they are Traitors or Faithfuls in the final, the producers cast people with past beef or who have reputations for playing dirty on their shows — or in life.
“The Traitors” has made it on the watchlists of many discriminating viewers because the show understands its role in the broader genre. This is a show for people who think they’re too good for reality TV but aren’t above enjoying the moral vices and virtues of its players.
Reality mines human drama – sometimes realistically, often with artificiality. Unscripted’s universe also comprises various spheres of fame and influence. People who audition for network reality shows are regular folks who go back to their jobs and families, whereas so-called Bravo-lebrities live their jobs even if they rent the mansions they allegedly live in from season to season.
Smush the most colossal personalities from these subgroups together into one place and dangle the threat of cash or murder over their heads, and quickly the energy quavers with paranoia and ridiculousness.
But the game also sorts personalities along intriguing boundaries. Some players see themselves as, say, grandparents or firefighters given another opportunity to compete for a boon their family could use. Some are Andy Cohen Housewives who never turn off their performance.
In the quarter-century since “Survivor” debuted, many reality competitions have described themselves as a social experiment. Only a few live up to the label, and often only in the first season or two. Eventually whatever honesty is present is ruined by the world watching, judging, and elevating a few to lasting stardom.
“The Traitors” keeps its behavioral study crisp and unpredictable, evolving ever so slightly in Season 3. Its core makeup is unchanged from its second season when the show stuffed its Scottish Highlands manor with nothing but reality stars. This was a shift from the first season which, like the UK original, divided its contestant pool between everyday people and celebrities.
The new season includes four “Real Housewives” contenders; four “Survivor” alumni; two refugees from “The Bachelorette”; two former “Big Brother” housemates, the nice trainer from “The Biggest Loser”; a cast member from “Selling Sunset” and another from “Summer House”; and a retired WWE wrestler.
A royal cousin mainly recognizable by his “nice last name,” Mountbatten, is about as unknown as this cast gets. Beside him in the “who’s that guy” corner is Britney Spears’s ex-husband Sam Asghari and Zac Efron’s brother Dylan.
Tom Sandoval sits somewhere between these camps on the social value scale; as a threat factor, he’s nothing compared to genre all-star “Boston” Rob Mariano. Lots are watching out for those two and rooting, probably, for “RuPaul’s Drag Race” champion and “We’re Here” co-host Bob the Drag Queen.
I haven’t named most of “The Traitors” third-season challengers because there are more than 20 of them, but the game’s psychology relies on typecasting on the part of players and viewers.
“Traitors” may be the most meta game on TV, in that every competitor has watched at least some of their rivals’ shows and bases suppositions about their trustworthiness off their franchises.
Personality-driven Bravo celebrities stick together on the assumption that they hold certain virtues in common, like loyalty. (This ignores that the most lethal player in Season 2 was Phaedra Parks, formerly of “The Real Housewives of Atlanta.”) Veterans of CBS ("Survivor," "Big Brother") and MTV ("The Challenge") competitions tend to crew up and pick them off. Everyone else scrambles to align with the herd that has the best odds for survival. Dating show alumni don't thrive in this cold Scottish clime.
Meanwhile, Bob the Drag Queen — loved by all — exists in his own sphere. Among all the players announced this season, the including of dear Caldwell Tidicue mustered the most excitement. His showing does not disappoint, especially when he counsels one of his housemates, “I am a lot. You’re probably not used to a lot of people like me.”
Last year’s “Drag Race” representative, Peppermint, was the first to be banished. When you jam a gaggle of people whose main talent is being themselves into a home for the highborn, jockeying for camera time is inevitable, and the larger people are in life, the bigger the target.
This leaves the lesser-known Efron and model/famous ex-husband somewhat out in the cold, whereas Lord Ivar Mountbatten can take some comfort in being adjacent to the Crown and "The Crown".
The American “Traitors” has taken a few knocks for scrubbing non-celebrities from its version. Handily the UK edition’s latest season overlaps with ours. A tech-savvy viewer could watch both to study the contrasts. One of them is that the British “Traitors” surfaces social class as its dominant subtext, whereas Cumming’s game shows American snobbery manifesting in fame, not skill, being a major determinant of worth and worthiness. The joy of our version is its chaotic unpredictability; I never would have guessed the second season’s winners in that round’s first three episodes.
The same is true this time, starting with the spot-on pack of Traitors Cummings selects at the start. Long may their terror and confusion reign, especially if it translates to many more seasons.
"The Traitors" premieres with three episodes at 6pm PT/9pm ET Thursday, Jan. 9 on Peacock. New episodes stream on Thursdays.
