Breaking Down All the Rules and Behind-the-Scenes Secrets You Didn’t Know About ‘The Traitors’

Peacock’s The Traitors has way more rules — and production secrets — than some fans may realize.

Inspired by Dutch series De Verraders, The Traitors brings together reality TV stars from different franchises — including Survivor, Big Brother, Real Housewives and more — as they compete in a mafia-style game for up to $250,000. The series premiered in 2023 but has already gone through multiple changes.

“My first idea was to do it on a ship in Australia,” creator Marc Pos recalled to Variety in January 2023. “And if somebody had to be out of the game, he or she had to jump into the water and swim to an island, but then I thought it would be too difficult to produce.”

For the American version, actor Alan Cumming was tapped to host and has guidelines of his own.

“The host is not there very much, and has to be careful not to manipulate the game, influence viewers, or spark doubts within the minds of contestants who are in their bubble,” Pos continued. “But when they’re there, they have to be kind of a friendly yet intimidating figure.”

Despite The Traitors relying on a shroud of mystery, cast and crew have spoken out about the rules and behind-the-scenes secrets fans aren’t privy to. Keep scrolling for a guide to all the surprising revelations — and perhaps helpful answers to some burning The Traitors questions:

What the Cast Members Know About Each Other

Casting director Deena Katz confirmed that contestants don’t know who else is on the show until they arrive in Scotland, telling Time in January 2024, “You don’t want them to be able to research each other or talk to each other or form alliances before.”

Season 2 star Sandra Diaz-Twine, meanwhile, explained on the “Reality After Show” podcast at the time that every player was later provided with photos and information on their fellow contestants to help them narrow down who could be a Traitor.

Taking a Personality Test

During a podcast appearance in January 2024, Mercedes “MJ” Javid recalled taking a 600-question psych evaluation. Executive producer Mike Cotton elaborated to Variety that same month how the tests allow the crew to “see attributes that might make someone a good liar or particularly deceptive.”

“It’s an interesting process. It’s a big group thing,” he explained. “We actually don’t know who the Traitors are until that pick, where Alan walks around and taps them on the shoulder. We watch how they interact when they arrive at the castle. Alan does these chats with them, sitting down and asking them if they’d like to be a Traitor and why. That has a really big bearing on it, as does Alan’s opinion.”

Cotton continued: “It’s almost like a job interview to be a Traitor, and we take all of that into account and decide just before the pick who that should be. We want to make sure we’ve got an interesting mix of characters that will bring their own unique skill set to it.”

Arie Luyendyk, who appeared on the first season, exclusively told Us Weekly in January 2023 about doing “a swim test,” adding, “[It was] to see if we were capable of completing the mission.”

The Choice Between a Faithful or Traitor

It wasn’t until season 2 that players were able to present their case to Alan about whether they wanted to be a Traitor or Faithful. While viewers at home know who the Traitors are (and how many have been tapped), season 1 star Cirie Fields revealed that other contestants are kept in the dark about crucial details.

“We knew that there could potentially be three to five Traitors in the game,” Cirie told E! News in January 2023 . “That was explained to us from the very beginning.”

The Drink Limit

According to season 2 star Ekin-Su Cülcüloğlu, the endless drinks seen on screen actually come with strict guidelines.

“You can only drink one drink a night anyway, it was quite restricted,” she told Entertainment Weekly in January 2024. “I remember everyone needed a drink from that round table, it was really intense.”

The Filming Schedule

Arie recalled not getting more than six hours of sleep a night. “It takes probably an hour for your brain to kind of shut off,” he told Us in February 2023. “You’re there for so long and it’s one of those things where we probably started at 8 or earlier and we probably were up till about 12 to 2 in the morning, depending on if you’re the Traitor or not, because the Traitors had to do their thing after the whole day was finished.”

In addition to filming long hours, the costars also give away their phones and any other forms of communication.

Taking Up Residence in the Castle

The hit competition series takes place at the stunning and regal Ardross Castle — but do they actually live there while filming? In short, no.

“How glamorous — you come to Scotland, and you stay in the Inverness Airport hotel,” Alan quipped to The Daily Beast in January 2023 about the actual accommodations offered to the contestants.

Alan, meanwhile, has a large changing room which he sometimes used as a place to take naps during production. But ultimately, even he isn’t able to stay at the castle overnight.

The setup in the castle also created guidelines for the players.

“You’re not supposed to talk about the game when the mics aren’t ready or the cameras aren’t on,” Dan Gheesling from season 2 told Business Insider in February 2024. “Because if we say something that’s important and it’s not on camera, they can’t use it on the show.”

Finding a Place to Gather

After seeing the response to season 1, producers decided to offer players more room in the castle, including the kitchen and an outdoor terrace, in addition to the library, the billiards room, the bar and the roundtable room.

“We’ve got two new spaces this year,” a producer told Parade in December 2023. “We’re calling one the scullery [basically a kitchen], and then outside there’s a tiny little area that’s called the folley which is a little stone-covered area. It’s brilliant. You can get two or three people sneaking out there, and you get these brilliant conversations.”

Catching a Chill in the Castle

Several players — including season 1 star Cody Calafiore — have mentioned how cold the castle is. “If they did get the heat working, it would probably be a little bit better,” Cody joked to Reality Blurred in January 2023.

Restrictions on Self-Promotion

Just because everyone on The Traitors is a star on a reality show doesn’t mean they can promote their brands. Shereé Whitfield from season 2 told People in February 2024 that she was not allowed to wear clothes from her own brand — SHE by Shereé — while on camera.

“They said I could not!” she said about the contract guideline. “You can’t wear your brand.”

Providing Support

Throughout the seasons, Peacock has made sure that every contestant has their own welfare team member.

“They’re checking on you at all times,” MJ said on the “Just Sayin’” podcast in December 2023. “They’re so cheerful and professional. I felt taken care of at all times.” Meanwhile in a separate interview, Ekin-Su said she once cried “overwhelming tears” to a welfare team member.

Security Guards Keep Players in Line

“It’s a massive military operation each night to get the Faithful to bed in individual rooms and get the Traitors back out to have their meeting,” creator Cotton told Variety in January 2024 about attempting to preserve the “secrecy of the Traitors.”

Kate Chastain, who appeared on three seasons of The Traitors in various capacities, told Vanity Fair in January 2023 about how security guards were alway around to prevent players from leaving their hotel rooms.

“Once it was clear that I was not getting the big bucks at the end, I was ready to go home because they ran a very tight ship. There were security guards making sure you never left your room. And we had long days, from breakfast to challenge to banishment,” she details. “By the time you got to your bed, you just wanted to go to sleep and sleep for eight hours because I knew it would be the big day the next day. The food in the highlands of Scotland is nothing to write home about, but it was good enough. I really missed martinis. I really missed a little bit of freedom after a while.”

Length of a Banishment Roundtable

“It got really intense, you know, a lot of crying, a lot of pointing fingers, a lot of below-the-belt stuff that they didn’t show on TV,” Arie told Us in 2023. “I feel like they kind of kept it pretty chill on TV, but I felt like it was in real life a lot more intense. … I think if it got a little too raw or a little too mean, they just omitted it, you know? They kept it more about the game.”

Allowing Couples Into the Competition

Larsa Pippen and Marcus Jordan were the first couple to compete on the show when they joined season 2. (They’ve since split.) But just because they were dating doesn’t mean they were treated like a package deal by production, which meant they had to sleep in separate rooms and were not allowed to communicate with each other.

“Marcus asked me for a nail file, and I put it in a paper bag — and they go through everything, you’re not supposed to send anything back and forth — but he wanted a nail file and I was like, ‘I’m just going to send him a nail file,” she recalled to People. “And then I was like, ‘Oh, there’s a banana. He said he wanted a banana.’ So I [write] ‘I love you’ on the banana and send it to him with the nail file.”