Any longtime fan of a reality competition series like Survivor or Big Brother knows that a new twist to the game's format isn't always a good thing. To use Big Brother terms, for every Power of Veto that's introduced in the game and sticks, there are countless Battle-of-the-Block-type twists that just don't land. While the The Traitors is a relatively young series by comparison to some reality shows, it's clearly not averse to bringing in a game-changer that doesn't stick beyond a season or two. Given how this particular twist played out in the most recent season of The Traitors, I can't say I'm disappointed that it sounds like it won't be coming back.
Spoiler alert if you're not caught up on Season 4 of The Traitors!
If you watched Season 4 of The Traitors in the U.K. or the U.S., you're aware of the Secret Traitor twist. This new layer to the game introduced an extra Traitor whose identity was kept from the other Traitors, as well as the viewers. So we knew who the Traitors in the turret were, but the Secret Traitor was a total mystery. Their job was to whittle down the list of candidates up for murder, and then the regular Traitors could choose to murder someone from that list
Article continues belowIGN attended a recent event where Studio Lambert CEO Stephen Lambert spoke about the Secret Traitor twist, which as he points out, was added to the series to differentiate it from the newly launched celebrity version in the UK, but it wasn't the plan to keep going with it:
After the huge success of the Celebrity Traitors, we introduced the idea of a Secret Traitor as a way of doing something that was different ... but it wasn't something we wanted to keep going with. It was a clever way of signalling we were doing something different, but I go back to the pleasure of the show being that the audience doesn't know who the Traitors are.
The US version of The Traitors is already technically a celebrity version -- though NBC has a non-celeb version on the way -- so I'm taking his comments to indicate that twist was introduced to differentiate the UK version from their celebrity version (which aired on BBC One in 2025), but that it wasn't intended to continue in either UK or US series, as Studio Lambert produces both. Season 4 of both the US and UK series debuted in January on the 2026 TV schedule, and can be streamed on Peacock.
I've only just begun watching Season 4 of the Traitors UK with my Peacock subscription, so I can't comment on how well the twist worked out there or how long it lasted, but in the U.S. version, it fell pretty flat early on, as Donna Kelce was selected for the role, and frustratingly enough, was banished during the second roundtable of the season.
While I can see the benefit of having a Secret Traitor as a way to change up the game and give the audience a bit of the perspective of a Faithful, in that we know there's a Traitor in the game, but we have no idea who, I wasn't a fan of the way this person had to work independently from the other Traitors. We never had the opportunity to understand their motives behind the list, and it limited the options for murder for the Traitors in the turret.
Lambert addressed other shows that have done a similar thing in keeping viewers in the dark, but raises an interesting point about the edit:
There have been other shows which have done something similar, where the audience didn't know who 'the mole' was ... and the trouble is you're completely a victim of the edit... and that doesn't feel very satisfying.
The traditional format of The Traitors works just fine on its own, though I have no doubt that there will be more twists and ways to keep the Traitors and Faithful on their toes in the future, should this series continue on for seasons in years to come. While it's possible my opinion on the Secret Traitor twist will change once I finish watching Season 4 of the UK version, right now I won't be sad if it doesn't return.
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