SPOILER ALERT: This story accommodates spoilers from the primary 4 episodes of “The Traitors,” now streaming on Peacock.

Ever since each the BBC and Peacock tailored the Dutch collection “De Verraders” into “The Traitors,” it’s been a success. Each produced by Studio Lambert, the U.Ok. model premiered on the BBC in November 2022, with the U.S. model dropping on the NBCUniversal streamer Peacock lower than two months later.

After the primary season blended non-famous solid members with celebrities, the second season of the U.S. model is now solely acquainted faces. The idea stays the identical: contestants should work collectively on missions to fill their prize pot with as much as $250,000. A number of “Traitors” are chosen by host Alan Cumming in the beginning of the sport, and the remainder of the contestants are known as the “Devoted.” The Devoted should attempt to establish who amongst them is a Traitor, banishing one member in every episode after a roundtable dialogue. On the identical time, the Traitors homicide a Devoted every evening, whereas additionally working to maintain their identities secret. Ultimately, if the Devoted banish all of the Traitors, they’ll break up the prize amongst all of them, but when a Traitor makes it to the top, the cash is all theirs.

The primary season took house an Emmy Award for finest casting, whereas the second season’s scores have already surpassed the primary, changing into the most-watched actuality premiere on Peacock.

Right here, govt producers Mike Cotton and Sam Rees-Jones element the logistics of filming contained in the Scottish fortress, clarify how the Traitors are chosen, share extra about Cumming’s position as host and producer — and tease what to anticipate from the remainder of Season 2.

I wish to begin with a logistical query concerning the U.Ok. and U.S. seasons, as a result of this week, each variations dropped the funeral episodes. How shut collectively had been they filmed, and was it deliberate to roll out the identical week?

Mike Cotton: So we use the identical location, they usually share the missions that the contestants participate in. It’s a very good partnership between BBC and NBC, since you get to mix assets at factors. The cash spent on the present goes additional. We shoot one model first, after which we shoot the opposite model nearly instantly after; this yr we shot the BBC model first, after which we shot the NBC model. Season 1, it was the opposite method round. They get minimize at comparable instances. How they fall and the way they air concurrently is determined by when the networks wish to drop them.

So do the units from the missions — just like the gravesites, for instance — simply keep up in between the 2 variations?

Cotton: Yeah, it’s like a “Traitors” theme park. I typically assume we are able to open our personal Disney World. As a result of if you happen to get into the fortress grounds, there’s a whole lot and a whole lot of acres of land — it’s obtained its personal river, it’s obtained its personal hills, it’s obtained its personal church — that we take over and construct all these varied issues.

Sam Rees-Jones: Now we have to be actually cautious as a result of, for instance, we put 150 or 200 scarecrows in a area, however that’s on the fortress grounds. So we now have to watch out with the logistics of bringing the solid in so that they don’t see that, or they don’t see our burial plot, as a result of that provides away what’s coming.

How lengthy does every episode take to movie?

Rees-Jones: We primarily prefer to movie an episode a day, which is sort of an enormous enterprise. However the purpose we like to do this is as a result of it retains an immersive bubble, retains their heads within the recreation. Schedule-wise, it’s an actual stress, however content-wise, it’s positively the fitting factor to do. We begin the day with breakfast, have a roundtable, have a mission, have a homicide after which begin once more. Now we have down days with the solid and Episode 1 and the finale could take slightly bit longer.

Cotton: We at all times say that at first, it is a recreation slightly than a actuality present. So the solid begin to study the rhythm of the day. However we don’t produce it like a traditional present. So we arrange this surroundings. We arrange the principles of the sport, after which we simply allow them to play it, which is absolutely good and in addition terrifying at instances since you by no means know what’s going to occur.

Are the roundtable and the breakfast rooms each contained in the fortress?

Rees-Jones: Completely, yeah. The rationale we picked that individual fortress was to deal with the roundtable room. It’s such an unlimited area.

How large is it?

Cotton: It’s enormous. We use a bit of it. We give them free rein; we’ve taken a wing of the fortress, and that’s their space that they will play the sport inside. They’ve obtained all the surface as properly. They’re free to roam round. It’s a very previous constructing, and there’s elements of it which can be fully unrenovated, that haven’t been touched for a lot of, a few years. At one level, it was occupied throughout the conflict by the Navy. It’s fascinating, as a result of it’s obtained a lot historical past to it. I can’t estimate the sq. toes, nevertheless it’s obtained the potential for 30 bedrooms in actuality. Plenty of it’s unconverted.

Proper, you clearly weren’t going to intestine a complete fortress.

Cotton: Precisely. Plus, we don’t wish to have to provide and direct our solid in sure instructions. If we coated that massive area, it’d be unimaginable to cowl all of them. They’ll break up up and have their very own conversations, nevertheless it’s sufficiently small that somebody might be listening on the door exterior, and somebody can see when somebody disappears and has their very own secret chat.

Does the solid sleep within the fortress?

Cotton: Oh wow, that’s a tough one to reply. I can’t reply. The most important factor is that the present depends completely on the secrecy of the Traitors, and by that, I imply we now have to be actually cautious that the Devoted don’t know who the Traitors are. It’s an enormous army operation every evening to get the Devoted to mattress in particular person rooms and get the Traitors again out to have their assembly. And as quickly as we begin speaking concerning the particulars of how they sleep and the place they sleep, it will unravel any potential future seasons.

I used to be very interested in how folks had been getting off the bed and others weren’t listening to them!

Cotton: It’s a army operation, that’s what we are able to say!

Did Larsa Pippen and Marcus Jordan get to share a room this season since they’re a pair?

Rees-Jones: No. I believe they’d have needed to, however they weren’t allowed to as a result of it will have given them a foot up within the recreation.

How lengthy is the breakfast portion, as persons are introduced in?

Cotton: They’re introduced in at staggered intervals, however they don’t sit there for a very long time and discuss, since all the pieces occurs in a day. The breakfast lasts, from begin to end, an hour max.

Let’s discuss Alan Cumming. I do know he’s additionally a producer and host. Is he watching screens and writing copy? How a lot is he concerned within the day-to-day on the manufacturing facet?

Rees-Jones: I’m overseeing Alan, and labored intently with him. He’s fully in it. He has screens in his room. He will get giddy watching what’s occurring. He’s continually messaging me going, “Oh, my God, are you able to consider they’re speaking about this?” or “That is occurring!” What I really like about him is that he’s an actor and an incredible author. So he works with me and the scriptwriters to make all of it sound inside his voice. He takes it on as a efficiency, so when he walks into the roundtable, it’s a efficiency for him. He received’t go to mattress till he is aware of who’s been murdered. He’s fully in it, and he will get giddy going into any area and speaking to the solid.

How do you determine who turns into a Traitor?

Cotton: It’s an attention-grabbing course of. It’s an enormous group factor. The entire contestants that participate in our present, we’ve carried out character exams on them. We see attributes that may make somebody liar or significantly misleading. We really don’t know who the Traitors are till that choose, the place Alan walks round and faucets them on the shoulder. We watch how they work together after they arrive on the fortress. Alan does these chats with them, sitting down and asking them in the event that they’d prefer to be a Traitor and why. That has a very large bearing on it, as does Alan’s opinion. It’s nearly like a job interview to be a Traitor, and we take all of that into consideration and determine simply earlier than the choose who that ought to be. We wish to be sure that we’ve obtained an attention-grabbing mixture of characters that may carry their very own distinctive ability set to it.

How did you determine to create the Season 2 solid — from Bravo expertise and athletes to a politician?

Cotton: Properly, we cherished having Marcus and Larsa within the combine. It’s a disgrace that they obtained murdered after they did, as a result of I’d have cherished certainly one of them to have been recruited as a Traitor! Would Larsa have killed Marcus? What would have occurred? So I believe we’re at all times occupied with that blend.

What we’re actually happy with is that the solid has a broad age vary. On so many competitors actuality reveals today, all contestants are younger, within the 18-25 bracket. This recreation doesn’t rely simply in your bodily prowess, so the age vary is absolutely vast. We kind of handled like placing collectively a jury. It’s an actual cross-section of individuals. Sure, they’re celebrities, however all of them come from barely completely different backgrounds.

Season 4 was top-of-the-line episodes of actuality TV I’ve seen in a very long time, and I’ve a particular query. Was Ekin-Su Cülcüloğlu really within the casket if you lowered it into the bottom?

Cotton: She didn’t really get coated in dust.

Rees-Jones: So far as the solid is anxious, she was!

Cotton: We cherished that episode. Even for us, how the entire chalice story performed out and Parvati Shallow, who’s an incredible participant, making an attempt to do away with that chalice after which the particular person getting murdered after which turning up at breakfast. We arrange the duty, and we knew the premise of it, however we didn’t have any concept the way it would possibly play out, and the way the solid would do in it. It was wonderful how they handled it like an actual funeral and the mourning on the gravesite on the finish. That’s how immersed they had been in it.

Have been all of them informed to carry funeral attire?

Rees-Jones: We by no means talked about a funeral as a result of we didn’t wish to give that away. However I believe we mentioned one thing like, carry garments that could be acceptable for a black tie occasion, after which we now have a stylist on location who can kind of decorate and add issues. We cherished how they regarded. It was fairly a dramatic look.

This solid has a actuality background, however do you assume that those that have performed strategic video games like “Survivor” or “Huge Brother” have an higher leg over those that, for instance, competed on “Dancing With the Stars”?

Rees-Jones: Individuals will assume they’ll know methods to play the sport, they usually don’t. It doesn’t actually matter the place they the place they arrive from.

Cotton: I bear in mind speaking to Parvati as soon as, and he or she mentioned to me, “This recreation is so attention-grabbing, as a result of in video games like ‘Huge Brother’ and ‘Survivor,’ you’ll be able to formulate your technique. You set your technique in the beginning and play it out till the top.” On this recreation, that’s completely unimaginable since you might need a method, however then that particular person that you simply shaped that technique with is all of a sudden banished the subsequent day, or they get murdered the subsequent morning. It’s a recreation of instincts and belief.

Rees-Jones: You’re going to like the episodes to return. There are moments when you’ll be able to see the sport twists, and you may see the cogs turning, somebody considering, “I’ve obtained to 180 my recreation and technique.” It’s not simply the the twists and turns the present has, it’s kind of the twists and turns that occur as a result of somebody does a sure factor.

Why did you determine to make this solid stuffed with actuality stars/celebrities, versus bringing in unknown folks such as you did in Season 1?

Rees-Jones: Season 1, we had been fairly fascinated by how would folks method the sport if, for some folks, you knew one thing about and also you might need a preconceived concept about, and a few folks you didn’t know something about in any respect. I believe that was the idea initially behind the combo. I believe it was actually attention-grabbing, and paid off very well. For Season 2, we needed to flip it and see how this could play out. The unique Dutch format was at all times all celebrities, and it felt pure to return to that. I believe a part of the rationale is also that the sport is a recreation of two sides — the Traitors vs. the Faithfuls. We additionally didn’t need it to be two sides by way of movie star and non-celebrity. So it simply felt cleaner.

Lastly, why did you determine to carry Kate Chastain again?

Cotton: I believe that was one thing that we mentioned rather a lot with NBC. I believe everybody felt like Kate had some unfinished enterprise within the present. She was a standout character on Season 1.

Rees-Jones: It wouldn’t be like bringing Cirie [Fields] again, the place she performed an incredible recreation. Kate performed a messy recreation, she’d let you know herself — a superb, fascinating recreation. She’s so watchable, she brings a unique dynamic. It’s thrilling to see her.

Cotton: And she or he’s a mother now, so she’s extra motivated to attempt to win that cash.

This interview has been edited and condensed.