What Cameras Don't Show You On The Traitors

After its release, "The Traitors" completely captivated the television world. The Peacock original series was inspired by the Dutch show of the same name and format that has spread to other countries. The United States' version, hosted by the incomparable Alan Cumming, has its own spin, with the contestant pool featuring stars from other popular shows, mostly 2000s reality TV shows and some popular reality dating franchises. Past contestants have included Bob the Drag Queen, Parvati Shallow, former Bachelor Peter Weber, and a variety of women from "The Real Housewives" franchise. Fans loved to watch the events of the murder mystery game unfold each week, and many viewers have had plenty to say online afterward.

And while plenty of drama is shown on screen, from banishment ceremonies and meetings in the turret to furtive strategy sessions and revealing confessionals, a lot more went down behind the scenes for both the cast and crew. It takes a lot to put together a reality TV show, especially one as good as this Emmy winner. Take a closer look at what cameras don't show you on "The Traitors."

One of the first scenes of every "The Traitors" season shows all the contestants meeting for the first time in Scotland. And while some do have pre-existing relationships — "Real Housewives" stars typically know each other, as do former contestants from other reality shows like "Survivor" or "Big Brother" — the contestants are finding out in real time who they're going to be competing against. As "The Traitors" casting agent Deena Katz told Time, "The cast doesn't know who else was on the cast, until they all show up there. Because it's a game, you don't want them to be able to research each other or talk to each other or form alliances before..."

Clearly, though, as fans of the show often saw, alliances form quickly despite contestants not knowing who else is going to be at the castle until arriving, and they often shift. And every contestant who's there was deliberately chosen by Katz and her team. "It started out with trying to think of the best in game players. I'm a fan of reality television, and the ones that do the best are the ones that know that it is a game to play — you have to be entertained," Katz said of her thought process behind casting. "Getting those tentpoles of the people that would play this game was what I thought we needed to do first."

Anyone who watched even one episode of "The Traitors" knows that the series is not for the faint of heart — for the contestants, that is. Contestants are subject to days, sometimes weeks, of manipulation and uncertainty, and not just any old reality star is cut out for the mental side of the game. Every season, the production team took great care to ensure that they chose the right people to play "The Traitors," and that included having all contestants undergo testing before signing on. "All of the contestants that take part in our show, we've done personality tests on them. We see attributes that might make someone a good liar or particularly deceptive," executive producer Mike Cotton told Variety of the process.

"The Traitors" fans will recall that each episode includes a challenge, too. The challenges test a range of skills, and some of them can be intense. While there are certainly mental and emotional aspects to the challenges, they can also be quite physically taxing, and some can even be dangerous to people who are not adequately prepared. To ensure that all contestants are ready for various challenges, they had to pass certain physical tests, too. Season 1 contestant and star of "The Bachelor" Arie Luyendyk shared some insight into his experience with Us Weekly: "...[W]e had to do a swim test to see if we were capable of completing the last mission," the former Bachelor said.

Alcohol use has long been part of "The Traitors." Each night after a challenge, contestants return to the castle and many seem to partake. Many contestants saddle up to the bar to talk strategy and theory, and alcohol has even been part of eliminating a Faithful, like in Season 2 when Parvati Shallow took out Ekin-Su via poisoning. However, contestants aren't allowed to drink too much — there's a limit on how many drinks each person can have per day. As Ekin-Su told Entertainment Weekly, "You can only drink one drink a night anyway, it was quite restricted."

The rule may come as a surprise to some, especially considering the role alcohol has played in reality TV history. However, in recent years, the dark side of reality TV has been a topic among many, and cast members of other series have cited having had a poor experience because of certain policies on alcohol. "The Traitors" isn't the only reality series that has had an alcoholic drink limit. "Love Island," for example, which Ekin-Su has also appeared on, has limited its contestants' intake. "So it's definitely one drink in the night and you have to order it in the afternoon. You can have like white wine, red wine, beer," former "Love Island" star Amy Hart once told The U.K. Sun.

A focal point of "The Traitors" is the incredible castle at which most of the series takes place. While the contestants do venture off property for challenges, all of the scheming, strategizing, and, of course, banishments take place at the now-iconic Andross Castle. The castle has plenty of history. Construction on the building started in 1847, and it took around 400 people to complete the work. Multiple families have owned the property since it was first built, but it's been in the hands of the McTaggert family since the 1980s. Prior to serving as the primary filming location for "The Traitors," Andross Castle was mostly used as a wedding venue.

The castle has plenty of bedrooms, too, but none of them are used for "Traitors" contestants. The cast doesn't sleep at the castle. "They all stayed in the airport hotel in the Inverness airport," host Alan Cumming told the Daily Beast. "How glamorous — you come to Scotland, and you stay in the Inverness airport hotel," he joked. Cumming makes out the best as far as sleeping at the castle is concerned, though he doesn't get to spend the night there, either. "I stayed in a little house in Inverness. But I had a room in the castle where I would get made up and dressed. It had a huge bed in it. So I did actually sleep quite often, but not overnight," Cumming said.

It hasn't seemed to matter much that "The Traitors" contestants don't get to sleep at the castle because they don't have the opportunity to sleep much anyway while on the show. The filming schedule has been tight, and contestants have cited only getting about six hours of sleep per night. As former contestant Arie Luyendyk told Us Weekly, "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 the traitor or not. Because the traitors had to do their thing after the whole day was finished." Contestants do crave sleep, though. The show throws a lot at them in a short amount of time, and the cast members need some time to recharge. "When you go back to your room you literally just sleep because it's so emotionally and physically draining. You don't want to speak to anyone for another 12 hours!" former contestant Meryl Williams told Betaway, as reported by Yahoo!.

Producers have opened up about the filming schedule as well, confirming that it is intense, but providing some reason for it. "We mainly like to film an episode a day, which is quite a big undertaking. But the reason we like to do that is because it keeps an immersive bubble, keeps their heads in the game," executive producer Sam Rees-Jones told Variety. And those who can keep their heads in the game long enough can receive quite the payout, which must be worth the lack of sleep.

Breakfast has been one of the most important parts of the day in "The Traitors" universe. Each morning, contestants gather into the breakfast room to find out who survived the night and who didn't. Contestants are also surrounded by what looks like an incredible breakfast spread. However, some contestants have said it's not quite as good as it looks. "I'm sorry guys, it's time to come clean and leak something shocking about ["The Traitors"]. It pains me to tell you, but that breakfast is REALLY DRY AND NOT VERY NICE," former contestant Ivan Brett said on X, formerly Twitter, of the food. Others, though, didn't have anything bad to say about the food. Arie Luyendyk, for example, ate quite a bit because he was just happy to be at breakfast. "That was kinda the only time I wasn't stressed out because I was like, 'Hey, if I made it down to breakfast, I can actually relax and have breakfast and not worry about something.'" Luyendyk told Us Weekly.

Food hasn't been the most pressing issue for production, though. Each breakfast scene has had quite a bit of logistics behind it. "[Contestants are] brought in at staggered intervals, but they don't sit there for a long time and talk, since everything happens in a day. The breakfast lasts, from start to finish, an hour max," executive producer Mike Cotton told Variety about filming the scene for "The Traitors."

The object of "The Traitors" is survival, but that means something different for each contestant depending on whether they're a Traitor or a Faithful. For Faithfuls, they're trying to eliminate Traitors, but they don't know exactly how many Traitors there are. As former contestant Cirie Fields told E! News, the cast was only given an estimate. "We knew that there could potentially be three to five Traitors in the game. That was explained to us from the very beginning," Fields said. And as audiences can attest to, that number can change based on the course the game takes.

And how exactly have Traitors been chosen? That has depended on timing. To start, host Alan Cumming and the producers have chosen who the initial Traitors were each season, but if one got eliminated and another joined, that could be up to the cast. "Some people are just absolutely better traitors than others, some people want to play the game but don't necessarily want to be a traitor. On this season, when the traitors got to pick someone, that's less a production thing, it's actually who they picked," casting agent Deena Katz told Time of the United States' version's second season. For Cumming, one element has stood out when it comes to choosing Traitors. "There's got to be drama," he told Vulture. "What is good telly and what is a good game? Most often, they coincide."

Another major element of "The Traitors" that has taken the reality world by storm is the glamour. Contestants have played the game in some of the best outfits reality TV audiences have ever seen, and some contestants did so in full glam. What's more impressive is that the contestants have been mostly left to their own devices, especially when it comes to hair and makeup. As Season 3 contestant and "Selling Sunset" star Chrishell Stause told Us Weekly, she was responsible for her own beat. "I would've died to have glam in the castle, but [host] Alan [Cumming] [did] not allow us to," she said. "At least with 'Selling Sunset,' you get to sit in a chair and have glam."

Stause shouldn't feel too slighted, though. Although Cumming's life on set of "The Traitors" has been a little cushier than it is for the contestants, the host hasn't had an enormous team to help him, either. In fact, for the first season of the United States' version of the show, Cumming wore mostly his own clothing. "Perhaps, rather alarmingly, the vast majority of the clothes were mine," Cumming told the New York Times. Cumming did get some help with accessorizing, though. "What made [the wardrobe] pop was [stylist] Sam Spector kind of added all these sachets and big broaches and even my specks were really interesting, all different colors and little slippers and wellies and berets and stuff like that," Cumming told People.

As noted, "The Traitors" has been a huge mental and emotional strain on some of its contestants. Contestants don't know who to trust on the show, and they begin to start doubting themselves as a result. While most former contestants have stated how much fun they had competing, many have also said that the mind games were a burden. And it appears that the producers have been well aware of the burden contestants face — so much so that they have provided mental health support for everyone who plays the game. "There was about one welfare person to every two cast members, just to make sure you all had snacks or if you needed a little moment to yourself," former U.K. contestant Alex Gray told Cosmopolitan U.K. "You could speak to a psychologist to ground yourself again and bring you back to reality if you needed it."

Despite the support, some contestants wouldn't suggest others go on the show. "I'm really chuffed that I did it, but I probably wouldn't recommend it for people for their sanity and mental health," former U.K. contestant Maddy Smeldy told The Stage. "Honestly, [at times] I was shaking; I had to get ice cubes for my eyes because I was crying so much thinking I was going to die," she said, though she did add that the after effects of competing on the show were positive.

Considering how taxing competing on "The Traitors" is, audiences might wonder why anyone would sign up for the show. Contestants have willingly put themselves into a dubious environment where they have to complete challenges that push them physically and potentially force them to face some of their deepest fears. But there's one major incentive that has driven lots of people to compete on "The Traitors" — the prize money. Each season, the potential earnings were significant, as one or a few people could have one the prize pot of $250,000 (the earnings varied based on which country's version contestants were competing on). Competing on the show has still been a major risk, though, as contestants only get a huge payout if they win. As Aaron Evans, a former U.K. contestant, said, "They don't technically pay you, they subsidize what you would have got for work with the show, it's roughly like £100 a day," as reported by Lad Bible. "It's not that much ... but it's definitely worth it."

Contestants seem to have agreed with Evans that competing on "The Traitors" is worth the experience, even if they didn't win. And those who didn't win can use the show to garner other opportunities. In countries where contestants are people who aren't already famous, the show has potentially served as a platform to get cast members more paid opportunities. In countries like the United States where contestants have already attained some level of fame, "The Traitors" has helped some continue to build their brand as it put them in front of a new audience. In many ways, they still got paid even if they didn't win.