Is traitors scripted ?

[Chimneyonya]

I have absolutely adored celebrity traitors. I haven’t watched the first 2 series so this is my first viewing of it and it’s honestly been brilliant. Proper heart pounding, tense and so funny too. I just love it.

But it’s scripted right? At least in parts? It’s all a bit too perfect at times. Or is it just clever editing to string more of a coherent story line out of all the rough cuts?

The final was a blast to watch but sealed the deal for me that it’s a bit scripted. Although I did think Nick was going to turn the fire red and get rid of Alan.

I don't know about the celeb version, but when DD applied to go on the "normal" version she was told that she'd have to be available for up to 6 weeks as they could only film on certain days/dates.

Pretty much every reality TV show you watch is scripted/fixed, very few are authentic. Celebrity Traitors felt genuine though.

Yeah, I can believe the Towie / Footy Wives / My Sleb House Is Haunted type of shows have a - er - carefully crafted narrative, shall we say.

But on something like Traitors, you cannot predict who is going to be either crap or good at the challenges, or find a shield, or who is going to side with who, or what will make them change their minds about which way to vote.

Oh god, I find him so fake, give me Claudia any day.

op, it’s all natural but brilliantly edited.

Can't believe people didn't know / can't see that it's edited to make it as entertaining as possible for the viewer. The whole thing is recorded with hours and hours of footage, then edited knowing what the final outcome is. And of course Claudia is told who to ask first at the round table or to leave Alan to the end when they were doing the big reveal in the final etc.. Same as contestants are told which car to get into and the order they arrive for breakfast etc. It's not scripted, just produced and edited really, really well.

Agree, hate Alan Cummings! So tedious!

Claudia is the best, the Aussie traitors host is weird too. Claudia fits the bill really well, doesn’t take herself too seriously.

This is the first celebrity series. There have been three previous series with members of the public.

I've been to this and I absolutely loved it but I did last till nearly the end. When you are banished you have to watch from another room (drinks can be delivered). The setting is perfect.

I cannot bear to watch US Traitors, I don't like AC and the "celebrities" are awful.

I think the editing does a lot to create the narrative.

I noticed in the final interviews with Claudia Nick said something about “also being a bit suspicious of Alan” but it looked like they had edited out comments about other people - presumably Joe - to make the ending feel more shocking.

If it was clear from that interview that Nick suspected Joe it would have ruined the ending.

I can’t watch it either, it’s so ott and fake. Give me Claudia’s classy quiet confidence any day over the screeching flamboyant attention seeking Alan does on the American version. I have no issues with him on other shows, and I think he is matching the contestants vibe in the USA version, and likely it works for the market, but I tried watching it and turned it off as I didn’t find it interesting or enjoyable.

I listened to a member of the production team being interviewed.

It isn't scripted but it is heavily edited. If Mark is voted off, then they have to show a narrative heading that way that makes sense.
There is also no time off camera. All conversation is recorded.

And the other interesting thing is that the contestants have no clocks and no way to tell the time!

I have to say I think it works better with celebraties, because it is less nasty.
In the other ones, the pressure to win the money gives it an unpleasant edge at times, whereas with the celebs it was all about the game.
Also knowing their personlaities from who they are, and the fact that they knew each other, meant that you hit the ground running in terms of getting to know people

Well, of course it’s ’heavily edited’, otherwise it would be Big Brother-style endless footage of the celebrities wandering about yarning about who got cast for some Netflix drama, complaining about the catering, eating the bewildering pick and mix in the kitchen or playing badminton badly!

But yes, absolutely to your last point — not needing the money/not playing to win money you get yourself takes the sting out of it.

DS has just had me rewatching the first UK season, and in comparison to the more Zen celeb version, it’s much more personal, especially towards the end, when they can nearly smell the cash. A share in £100 k is a life changing amount of money to the finalists in their 20s in low paid call centre jobs, or living with parents who aren’t well off, and a traitor lying to them is actually doing so to steal that money from them. Hannah’s face when it dawned on her for the first time that Wilf was a traitor. She was devastated. And furious.

They obviously needed the celebs to be a safe distance away so was obviously set up.

The end of s1 annoyed me because was it Alex? The other traitor basically nodded in wilfs direction.

I remember them being inside for this one too with Harry and Molly. That was such a good final.

Same here. An American celebrity is any egotist with enough botox and bravado.

I have to think that the UK show edited out scenes where suspicion fell on Alan Carr, how could his gaffes and demeanor not make him a suspect until the very end? And Nick's turning on Joe coming out of nowhere... until you realize he probably expressed his doubts earlier and more often than we saw. (I was traumatized when Joe was banished, he was my favorite.)

This current series (4), looks more scripted than ever before. Some bits are just too set up / promoted.

I’ve had the same thought. The antics of the last couple of episodes seem awfully convenient.

Yes. It’s looking a bit too fake so far. They don’t sleep in the castle they’re in a hotel, the ‘turret’ is a set probably at the hotel, the breakfast isn’t their real breakfast, the editing is too contrived etc, and that’s just the basics. Then absolutely and especially the last 2 episodes ‘events’, were scripted. Even the last guy (name unknown by ‘myself’) asking his question to the traitors - as if he made that Q up. It’s a prewritten (not by him), cliffhanger for last nights Friday episode. And much more I’m sure.

Still it’s entertaining anyway 🤷‍♀️

Over a quarter of a million applied for series 4 and 2 people knew each other by accident?

I am loving it in one way but it all feels so fake

I saw an interview with Alan Cummings recently and he described the current (new) series of US Traitors that started a few days ago as “Lord of the Flies with botox”. 😂

I think that is utterly plausible... think how many people you have met over a lifetime.

Also, sometimes weird coincidences happen. I went on a training course in Chicago (from London) and met a woman from Australia who over the next year I ran into in Santorini and in the Louvre.

My cousin is from a tiny, tiny town and ran into a friend from the same town in a village in Fiji.

And two of my colleagues here in London were amazed to find their parents are neighbours in a small Malaysian town.

correct me if I'm wrong but the producers haven't come out and said it was by accident, have they? It could have been deliberate.

and the amount of people who applied is irrelevant, regardless of how many apply, you still end up with 22 people.

If you think of all of the people you meet over the course of your life - from school, university, hobbies, jobs, living in the same area, your siblings' friends, your ex's circle of friends, your kids' friends' parents, the people who take the same train as you, people who work in your local shops...when you take all of that into consideration I'm more surprised it hasn't happened earlier. It's not like they were close friends, they said they hadn't seen each other for like 15 years.

I'm sure the producers scrutinised everyone's social media so unlikely they were even linked on there.

I know most of you on this thread will hate this but I love it so here’s the trailer for the latest US Traitors series. Even more camp and theatrical than the previous one (hard to believe I know).

I’m loving the line “no one can hear you scheme” 😍