The Traitors - c. 60% of contestants below 35 - ageist?

[Housebuyingfamily]

Haven’t done the exact calculation but 12 out of the original 25 were in their 20s, then there are early 30s people too. So 60% under 35 can’t be far off.

A few “older people” in 50s-70s absolutely there as a token or (dare I say it) novelty.

I get that young people watch prime time tv and BBC need these audiences, but should the show be so blatant in this targeting / shouldn’t it better reflect the demographics of the country? Isn’t it outright ageism? I also think people with more life experience are likely to be more interesting in how they navigate the game.

You had to be able to do 3 weeks in September- that was the filming period this year. (Hence the range of clothing, some in shorts, some in woolly jumpers, packing for Scotland in September probably means taking everything you own.)

A few of my 40-something friends talked about applying until they saw the dates. Not possible if you’ve got kids who are school aged.

(I do understand why they film in September - they need to have half decent weather for the challenges and all the outdoor filmed bits. However the castle would probably balk at losing wedding /holiday bookings in July/August and they want to show it over Christmas/New Year so can’t film too early, not fair on the winners having to keep it quiet for that long.)

From a strategy point of view, if I was a traitor, I’d want to keep in people who could win the challenges to get a good prize pot, so if I was between sending home two people, I’d pick the 50-something over the 20-something.

As a side note, I reckon an over 50s love island would be fabulous.

so if I was between sending home two people, I’d pick the 50-something over the 20-something

Do you realise how ageist this sounds? Not all 20-somethings are physically fitter than 50-somethings, and not all the challenges need a lot of physical ability anyway.

I’m not sure though- with big brother, the contestants got famous, it was quickly not just about winning the money, it was also a launch pad for fame/a media career.

Other than the winners, do you think you’d recognise the previous contestants on traitors? None of them seem to have built a media career off the back of being on it, whereas Big Brother and Love Island and GBBO have made people famous and many have built careers from appearing on those shows.

Because of that, no one would go on this or future series of Traitors thinking it would make them famous and rich, only thinking they could win the money.

I assume it’s done on purpose, the BBC is trying to attract young people again as they realised their TV license paying base is aging out.

They can only choose from whoever applies, and presumably they also have to check that everyone is strong, fit and healthy enough to be able to complete the challenges without disaster. They must have to conduct very rigorous health & safety assessments, so maybe a number of potential contestants are ruled out for that reason.

I'm 60ish, and there's no way I could do most of those challenges without doing myself a severe mischief.

It's really not a fame vehicle. At all. I think the furthest a winner has got is a podcast and Dianne went on Celebrity MasterChef. I think a lot of posters make assumptions having not seen it.

As for the age thing - I think it appeals to a very broad range of ages. Much more so than any other reality show I can think of. It's a load of people sitting around chatting fully clothed holding a croissant or a glass of wine depending on the time of day - could not be further from Love Island!

I’ve seen Maddy and Meryl on a few things post-Traitors, but I think they either were already in the industry or had been trying to get into it.

Wasn’t one of the other s1 contestants a comedian? Not sure it did that much for their profile as I can’t actually remember who that was…

The programme is bigger than the contestants at the moment. There are loads of fit 50-60 year olds. You would think anyone might take holiday and older DC don’t need both parents around.

Give it time.

Does not hold up. If 80% of applicants were men, the show would not have 8-% of players being men.

They had Maddy on Uncloaked and she’s apparently been in Hollyoaks and Call the Midwife since the Traitors

I just don't think the situation is the same now. It used to be a big deal of you ended up presenting This Morning or on the radio but we're all watching Netflix and listening to Spotify.

The last person I remember getting famous from nothing was Mrs Hinch, via Instagram.

@Suzuki76 Sge bypassed me! Was she the grey house guru?

I agree they need a better mix of ages and it’s not down to applicants because they don’t choose based solely on numbers who apply. They have clearly gone for a mass of younger people. This might be because two finalists last year were young and one was infatuated and could not see the obvious. So maybe they want that dynamic again? It just feels unbalanced.

But if 60% of applicants are under-35, but only 30% of people who make it onto the show are under-35, then that means someone who's under-35 has a significantly lower chance of making it onto the show - doing so deliberately would be discriminatory.

I think it definitely makes it less interesting to watch. And also much nosier. There seems to be more screaming and screeching this year.
But I suppose they can only recruit people who apply I would guess that the vast majority of people who apply are under 40

This isn't true. I am probably older than your parents and I love it as do many of my 60+ friends.

I'm 41 and wish they had a broader range of ages. More life experience makes people more interesting IMO

She didn't want the challenge to be successful though so some of that struggle was exaggerated

It's more inclusive than many shows in lots of ways but it's not primarily there to accurately represent the UK populace so a bit mad to test it in detail for that, especially when you admit you've not really run the figures and a PP's chart shows it's actually been fairly consistent, which is quite something when the tasks can be so physical. As for:

I do feel like this cohort is getting dangerously close to The Apprentice style contestant recruiting, which will render the show unwatchable.

I'm no Apprentice fan, but it's been incredibly successful as a long-running show so it's clearly very watchable for TV audiences so a fair enough model to follow, if it was following it, which I don't feel like it is. There's a good mix of people in there to start with and it's cracking viewing so far so for once I'd say lay off the BBC and just enjoy the show...

I'm not bothered about their age ratio, it's their lack of capacity to reason which annoys me. For instance to one participant, the fact that someone was a doctor, was a reason to suspect him of being a traitor. He said 'heals people in the day and murders people at night' as if it was a normal pattern of behaviour, and others round the table nodded wisely, and agreed with him🙄
God help us if this is a representative selection of our society in any way!

Older people do generally appear to be got rid of sooner. I expect Linda would have been murdered had she not been a traitor

Well quite! His 'logic' could've worked for any of them - beautician by day, monster by night! Dumb AF.

And Linda is such a crap traitor with zero strategy beyond her 'no idea' shrug, she'll be gone soon anyway.

My son made me watch it for the first time this week. I am mid-50s and have to say the age thing bias passed me by, other then realising Linda was older. You could not pay me to be on TV, and risk my privacy. In general, younger people are bigger risk-takers so it makes sense that they would apply and have less to ‘lose’ as such.

This doesn’t bother me. I didn’t really enjoy the show, but that was nothing to do with the age of the contestants!

Surely we could say the same about Love Island, Big Brother, MAFS, and similar shows?? Nearly ALL 'younger' people.

Nothing to do with ageism IMO. The reason is (IMO) that most people over 40 are not batshit enough to want to go on these shows. It's pretty much younger/Gen Z/younger milennials who want to be famous for nothing.