Why is 'The Traitors' so successful?

Studio Lambert’s The Traitors was avidly watched by over 10 million viewers. Its success has much to do with its difference from recent reality TV shows. It doesn’t depend on beautiful people intending to date each other, but rather casts ordinary people as detectives in a life-sized game of Cluedo in a beautiful Scottish castle. But there is something else which makes the show so popular, and no, it’s not Claudia Winkleman’s eccentric outfits or humorous commentary. Rather, the game is compelling because of its primal nature and psychological implications.

The Traitors has roots in another game, called “Werewolf”, invented by a Russian student of sociology who wanted to prove his thesis that an uninformed majority will always lose a battle of information against an informed minority.

Those chosen as “Traitors”, who commit murders each night, are almost always able to completely manipulate the “Faithfuls”. Hidden information gives the Traitors this power. In response, the Faithfuls’ primal instincts, to protect their own and to survive, kick in. What follows seems to be a psychological experiment, demonstrating how quickly people form “tribes”, containing the people they trust, and that a herd mentality will triumph evidence and reason.

When the players reach the Round Table each night and decide to “banish” one person, hoping to catch a Traitor, they almost always get it wrong. All it takes is for the name of one player to be mentioned in two or three conversations, and soon the votes for their banishment will be rolling in. The Traitors know this, and use it to their advantage: Season 3 Traitor, Minah, voiced her suspicions about a group of four Faithfuls, calling them a “clique”. This idea spread through the players’ conversations like wildfire and led to the banishment of one of these four that same evening.

The viewers witnessing this psychological phenomenon are in a similar position to the Traitors – they have the insider knowledge. The show therefore provokes its viewers to shout at the telly and wonder how the Faithfuls keep getting it so “obviously” wrong. It’s the kind of show which gives out false confidence, making people say, “I could do that. I’d make a great Traitor”.

This year, despite several commentators pointing out flaws in the game, such as the controversial role of the “Seer” and the lack of forfeiture when Faithfuls are banished during the Finale, The Traitors almost doubled it's audience since the first series. The show’s immersive examination of society, humanity and survival contributes to its uniqueness and widespread appeal.