As Peacock competition sensation “The Traitors” heads to NBC for a civilian season this fall, fans can expect all the same treachery and deceit, with a slight tonal shift.
“There is … a nuanced tonal shift,” EP Sam Rees-Jones told TheWrap, noting its 8 p.m. primetime broadcast placement. “It is obviously a program about murder and betrayal, but weirdly enough, because it’s tongue in cheek, it is a multi-generational viewing experience.”
Much of that shift, of course, is coming from the reality competition show being filled with everyday people, rather than the reality stars and celebrities who have made up the cast of the Emmy-winning Peacock version of the show. “We’ve seen that in the U.K. — you can watch it from all generations and enjoy it together as a family,” Rees-Jones said.
But it might also be felt as the civilian cast boards a steam train right out of “Harry Potter” through the Scottish Highlands to get to the castle, rather than arriving in the dead of night to hooded figures. And while the slightly shorter episodes on broadcast mean cliffhangers are in different places, EP Rosie Franks ensured “actual nuts and bolts of the game” will stay the same.
“It’s the same game — It’s Alan’s castle,” Rees-Jones said. “It’s all the things that we know and love about ‘The Traitors,’ but it’s with people that we don’t know and the other players don’t know, and we’re all learning about them at the same time.”
And speaking of “Harry Potter,” the EPs recruited “Harry Potter” alum Oliver and James Phelps (a.k.a. the Weasley brothers) for a cameo in the premiere.
“We like to think of the castle as its own world — it’s a functioning castle that Alan owns and runs, so it makes sense that there would be groundskeepers there,” Franks said. “We just thought that was a really nice Easter egg for them to be there … it’s never referenced that heavily, but they’re just there … and they fit in into that world.”
As for whether their cameo might parlay into a future appearance on “The Traitors,” the EPs didn’t say. “They were too busy keeping the castle for us to ask that question,” Rees-Jones joked.
The decision for the NBC version of “The Traitors” to include an all-civilian cast came from the network directly, but was welcomed by the executive producers, who also make the BBC version featuring everyday people. “We’ve always seen and sung from the rooftops what you get from a civilian version,” Rees-Jones said.
“When you watch it, you imagine yourself in there playing it, right?” Franks said. “So it’s exciting to then put those people, give them a chance to actually then play the game.”
The nationwide casting call tallied up 80,000 applicants total, which was narrowed down through an “extensive and rigorous” casting process to just 22 Americans representing nearly all ages and corners of the U.S.
“The roundtable is the beating heart of the show,” Rees-Jones said. “Those 22 players sitting in that circle facing each other, it’s only right that they have different experiences in life, different from different places in the United States, different jobs … that is what a jury would do as well, right? You want different opinions.”
When it came to traitor selection, host Alan Cumming — newly minted with his third consecutive hosting Emmy — tapped pilot Tomica Adams and funeral director Joe Vanella. The EPs remained tight-lipped on why they picked those two, but Franks noted they “hope that people would like seeing those two get up to mischief and and be traitorous together.”
Rees-Jones noted some of the factors that went into traitor selection include how that initial train ride went and what’s said within the individual chats with Cumming. “The number one question that we ask is, ‘Do we want to see these people play as traitors?’ And for Joe and Tomica, it was a resounding yes from everyone,” he said.
Deciding the identity of the third traitor, however, fell on the selected traitors, who selected two faithfuls to potentially seduce as traitors. The two faithfuls were challenged to compete for the third spot as a traitor while the other one was sentenced to death.
“It was really exciting to watch the faithful have to creep around for a change — we’re always seeing the traitors do in plain sight things, and it felt quite exciting to challenge faithful to do that,” Franks said. “It’s quite scary for us to put the pick of the final traitor in the hand of the two, and we got no control over it. But that’s also what was so exciting about it.”
“There’s a lot of thought that goes into picking the traitors, and then a twist that allows a period of time for that final traitor to go through this apprenticeship, I guess you could call it, was felt really interesting … to prove that they were the right person to complete that turret,” Rees-Jones said.
The two-episode premiere leaves off just before seeing if the selected faithfuls — Katie Fites and Xavier Scruggs — complete their mission, but the EPs tease there’s plenty of twists and turns ahead — with only some of their own doing.
“It was a genuine roller coaster to film the ‘New Bloods’ for NBC,” Rees-Jones said. “You’re going to see … players come to the surface that you may not expect. You’re going to see people make decisions that you may not expect.”
One of those surprises might’ve been the showmance between Victor Vollbrechthausen and Madeline Kostopulos, though it came to a halt after Kostopulos was eliminated in the first roundtable. “You never know what the Highlands is going to do to people,” Rees-Jones joked. “You never know how people are going to act or react.”
“The Traitors: New Blood” debuts ahead of the new season of Peacock’s “The Traitors,” which is also gearing up to begin filming soon. “The ‘Traitors’ train doesn’t stop,” Franks said. “We’re going to start filming the new season very very soon.”
“The Traitors: New Blood” airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT and streams the next day on Peacock.
