The Traitors is the hot new reality show in town. The Peacock series has won its second consecutive Emmy for Outstanding Reality Competition Program.
Last year’s win was Peacock’s first top program winner ever.
The Traitors beat MTV’s RuPaul’s Drag Race, CBS’ The Amazing Race and Survivor and Bravo’s Top Chef.
Handed the award by Netflix star Leanne Morgan, host Alan Cumming said, “Thanks to everyone who watches the show, thanks to all the people who have Traitors parties and dress up as me. We see you, we love you.”
He also thanked the “crazy cast” as well as its crew in Scotland, “who had to understand the concept that the Scottish summer is sometimes oxymoronic”, and NBCUniversal execs Francis Berwick and Sharon Vuong.
“It’s a difficult time we live in, but it’s so great that our show brings a little bit of joy into this life,” Cumming added.
It takes The Traitors to five wins for the year after picking up four awards at last weekend’s Creative Arts Emmys. In fact, the show has won all five Emmys it was nominated for this year.
It also won Outstanding Cinematography For A Reality Program, Outstanding Directing For A Reality Program and Outstanding Directing For A Reality Program, while Cumming won Outstanding Host For A Reality Or Reality Competition Program.
RuPaul’s Drag Race won five out of the last seven years before tonight, only losing to The Traitors and Prime Video’s Lizzo’s Watch Out For The Big Grrrls in 2022.
This category has long had consecutive runs for winning shows; The Voice won three years in a row and The Amazing Race won every year since the category’s launch in 2003 until 2010, when it was toppled by Top Chef, and it also went on to win in 2011 and 2012.
The Traitors is based on the Dutch format De Verraders, a game that splits its contestants into two groups: The Faithful and the Traitors. At the beginning of the season, host Alan Cumming picks the Traitors that will pit the Faithful against each other by murdering them one by one while trying to remain undercover. The Faithful attempt to uncover the Traitors in a roundtable where they vote each other out and banish them from the game. At the end of the game, if there are Traitors left in the game, they will split the money between them. If there are no Traitors left, the money is divided among the Faithful.
The third season of the show featured the likes of RuPaul’s Drag Race’s Bob the Drag Queen, Selling Sunset’s Chrishell Stause, Vanderpump Rules’ Tom Sandoval, The Bachelorette’s Gabby Windey, Zac Efron’s brother Dylan Efron, The Real Housewives of New Jersey’s Dolores Catania and aristocrat Ivar Mountbatten. [SPOILER ALERT] Catania, Efron, Mountbatten and Windey won.
Showrunner Rosie Franks, who joined the most recent season after having exec produced the BBC version of the show, said the most surprising thing for her was the fact that the traitors imploded. “When we put that team of traitors together, we thought they could have absolutely dominated that castle,” she told Deadline. “They were some of the best strategic minds in reality TV and if they worked together, they definitely could have absolutely run away with it, but they couldn’t. We definitely didn’t expect that and that moment came as a huge surprise to all of us.”
Earlier this summer, NBC ordered a civilian version of The Traitors, to air in 2026 with Cumming set as host, opening the doors to the infamous castle in the Scottish Highlands to everyday people.
Season 4 is set to launch next year with stars including Donna Kelce, the mother of NFL stars Travis and Jason Kelce; The Bachelor’s Colton Underwood; Love Island’s Rob Rausch and Maura Higgins; as well as a plethora of Real Housewives including Porsha Williams, Caroline Stanbury, Candiace Dillard Bassett and Lisa Rinna.
The Traitors is produced by All3Media’S Studio Lambert. Cumming serves as an executive producer along with Mike Cotton, Sam Rees-Jones, Rosie Franks, Jack Burgess, Stephen Lambert, and Tim Harcourt.
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