How Reality TV's Most Competitive Stars Plan to Win 'The Traitors' Season 2

Reality TV has no shortage of grueling competition series—from the claustrophobic confines of Big Brother to the exotic locales of Survivor—but arguably, no other show has the gleefully devious DNA of The Traitors, which is as much a social experiment as it is a physical and mental contest.

The Peacock series immediately captured the zeitgeist when it premiered in January 2023, grouping a bevy of recognizable figures like The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills' Brandi Glanville, Below Deck mainstay Kate Chastain (the season's undeniable scene-stealer), Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte, and Survivor's Cirie Fields with regular civilians for what is essentially an ambitious game of Mafia.

The concept: a small group of "Traitors" must methodically "murder" members of the larger group, "Faithfuls," who are trying to root them out and banish them from the game. If the Faithfuls succeed in identifying all the Traitors, they will split a prize of up to $250,000. However, if any Traitors remain hidden among their ranks at the end of the game, they'll walk away with the cash.

The Traitors returns to Peacock for Season 2 on January 12 with a new twist. Gone are the non-famous contestants in favor of an all-star cast of reality icons (and a few curveballs), many of whom are no strangers to fierce competition and backstabbing behavior. Actor Alan Cumming returns as host, and as he told us on set, his extensive wardrobe will be even more spectacular than Season 1.

Newsweek was among a small group of journalists to visit the Scottish set of The Traitors in September to speak to the cast and producers about their approach to Season 2. While the identities of the Traitors were kept secret from the press so that our questions to the cast couldn't influence the game, that didn't stop the cast members from discussing strategy (or lack thereof) in front of their fellow contestants—perhaps in an effort to conceal their own traitorous motives.

The Traitors Season 2 Cast List

The full cast list for The Traitors Season 2 includes stars from hit reality competitions such as Big Brother, Survivor, The Challenge, Dancing With the Stars, RuPaul's Drag Race and Love Island, along with personality-driven reality series such as the Real Housewives franchise, Shahs of Sunset and Bling Empire.

Then there are some unexpected additions, such as professional boxer Deontay Wilder, U.K. politician John Bercow, and entrepreneur (and Michael Jordan's son) Marcus Jordan, who, in another unexpected twist, is dating fellow contestant Larsa Pippen of The Real Housewives of Miami fame.

Here's who's competing in The Traitors Season 2:

• Carsten "Bergie" Bergersen (Love Island USA)
• Chris "C.T." Tamburello (The Challenge)
• Dan Gheesling (Big Brother)
• Deontay Wilder (FMR Boxing Heavyweight Champion)
• Ekin-Su Cülcüloğlu (Love Island UK)
• Janelle Pierzina (Big Brother)
• Johnny "Bananas" Devenanzio (The Challenge)
• John Bercow (FMR Speaker of the UK House of Commons)
• Kevin Kreider (Bling Empire)
• Larsa Pippen (The Real Housewives of Miami)
• Marcus Jordan (Fashion Entrepreneur)
• Maksim Chmerkovskiy (Dancing with the Stars)
• Mercedes "MJ" Javid (Shahs of Sunset)
• Parvati Shallow (Survivor)
• Peppermint (RuPaul's Drag Race)
• Peter Weber (The Bachelor)
• Phaedra Parks (Married to Medicine)
• Sandra Diaz-Twine (Survivor)
• Shereé Whitfield (The Real Housewives of Atlanta)
• Tamra Judge (The Real Housewives of Orange County)
• Trishelle Cannatella (The Challenge)

Keep Your Friends Close...

When the cast for Season 2 was announced, reality TV aficionados were particularly excited about potential showdowns (or forced alliances) between stars like Big Brother's Dan Gheesling and Janelle Pierzina, former Survivor champions Parvati Shallow and Sandra Diaz-Twine, and MTV's The Challenge alums Chris "C.T." Tamburello, Johnny "Bananas" Devenanzio, and Trishelle Cannatella.

All of these contestants have history—and in some cases, were involved in each other's eliminations on their previous shows, which could be a hindrance or a help in the duplicitous world of The Traitors.

Gheesling and Pierzina were both quick to downplay their success on Big Brother when asked how the long-running reality show's blend of physical competition and social strategy might help them win The Traitors.

"There's people here that are just to play the game. They don't care about the money. Those are gamers," Pierzina pointed out, clearly not placing herself in the same category (in front of her fellow contestants, at least).

"Just because we come from Big Brother or Survivor doesn't mean that we have a leg up. There's people here who just came to play...obviously, I come from a Big Brother background, and it's a lot of gaming, but I think everyone's playing the game, they're the pros."

Gheesling agreed, insisting that the degree of difficulty was far higher on shows like Survivor and The Challenge than Big Brother.

"On Big Brother...we have to, like, throw a ball in a hole. I knew the competitions were gonna be bigger, but I also knew it's not gonna be stuff like Sandra here has gone through where people get a pillow and have to knock each other out," Gheesling said, perhaps trying to make himself seem like less of a threat compared to the Survivor winner who was sitting beside him.

"It's also a challenge—it's been over a decade [since Big Brother]. Do I still got it, or maybe I never had it?"

Diaz-Twine, on the other hand, had no hesitation admitting The Traitors' competitions were "kiddie challenges" compared to what they had to endure on Survivor.

"Survivor challenges would make me so nervous because I'm not an athlete. I just hated them. Because if you're weak at something, everyone's gonna see it, you really get put on the spot on Survivor," she told reporters. "I was like, 'Oh, yeah, I don't have to worry about it because it is nothing compared to what you see on other shows,' like The Challenge.

"Bananas and CT, they can tell you...People get hurt on their challenges. So I was like, 'Oh, we [can] do this, don't worry about a thing.'"

Shallow, who won Survivor: Micronesia — Fans vs. Favorites, insisted that her experience on the grueling CBS series wouldn't give her any kind of advantage.

"This game is very different than what we've done in the past because this is very clear: we have find who the Traitors are and eliminate the Traitors. So in Survivor, it's like, you create alliances, and then you keep yourself safe with your alliances. Here, you can't really create alliances because you don't know who the Traitors are. You could be aligned with a Traitor and then murdered tomorrow," Shallow said.

"So you really have to navigate all of the different relationships in the castle. And I don't really know that anyone has a leg up. I think certainly there's perceptions of all of us based on what people have seen on television about who we are. But for me, it's been like 15 years since I won Survivor, and a lot has changed for me from then to now. So I'd really like to shake that."

Both Shallow and Pierzina dismissed notions of creating alliances with their fellow Survivor and Big Brother alums, with Shallow bluntly pointing out, "Sandra and I did not get along."

That approach stood in stark contrast to The Challenge's Tamburello, Devenanzio, and Cannatella, who outright admitted that they'd formed an alliance based on their shared history, and hinted they saw themselves as the strongest players in the house.

"We've got a long history together; [Trishelle and I] have blackmail on each other from Spring Breaks...[CT] was my first rivalry on The Challenge...but I feel like coming in here, regardless of who else comes into the house, they're gonna be closer than family to me, and I'm gonna know them better than anyone else coming in," Devenanzio said.

"I hope no one else can hear what I'm saying, but from an overarching 'protect this house' mindset, I'm like, 'we're all here representing the old-school Real World and The Challenge.'"

"These are my brothers, like I can talk bad about my brothers, but nobody else can," Cannatella added. "When I saw them, it felt like home, and I was like 'Aww, my guys, I know they're gonna protect me.'"

"We're like a dysfunctional family," Tamburello agreed. "With the [rest of the] cast, it's funny because I look at them like 'I've seen you guys on TV,' and they'll look at us like, 'so...what do we do?'"

"Yes, there are some people who have done some competition reality television shows, but I've always said this, I think in order to do The Challenge, in order to survive on The Challenge, in order to be successful and thrive in that environment, you've got to be cut from a different cloth," Devenanzio said.

Still, Tamburello pointed out, "If they want to win some money, they need to win some challenges," which meant that all three Challenge contestants felt confident that the other players would want to keep them around to help beef up the prize pot, rather than trying to eliminate a strong player the way they might on The Challenge or Survivor.

What's Love Got to Do With It?

On the other end of the spectrum are the players from non-competition shows like the Real Housewives, Bling Empire and Shahs of Sunset, and the romance-driven contests of The Bachelor and Love Island.

"Housewives, we're crazy, vindictive by ourselves," Phaedra Parks said. "None of us have ever played a game like this, but I think being a housewife makes you pretty tough. We definitely have to fight with a bunch of vindictive, deceptive villains. I think that is perfect training."

Shereé Whitfield agreed: "I think we were definitely well-equipped. Being an OG on [The Real Housewives of] Atlanta, having Phaedra, like she said, we work with people who are used to being deceptive and pretending to be or do things that are not actually true. So that prepared us. For myself, I want the Housewives to win. So I'm rooting for a horse here, but I'm also rooting for myself."

Two contestants who arguably have even more baggage than former reality TV rivals are The Real Housewives of Miami star Larsa Pippen and Marcus Jordan, son of Michael Jordan, who are the first couple on The Traitors' US edition.

"I do feel like there's a slight target on our back, one for me being a rookie at reality TV competition shows, but also having my girlfriend here...I feel like the other players wish they had their significant others here," Jordan said. "But I'm super lucky and happy to have my girlfriend here because it's like it made the adjustment so much easier."

"But I do feel like our relationship has changed," Pippen said. "We had to have this this conversation, basically like, 'hey, once we get to the castle, I'm Larsa, and you're Marcus, and we're not necessarily a duo anymore—like you're on your own, I'm on my own,' so I definitely feel like it has changed our relationship being here.

"But I feel like it's in a good way," she said. "I feel like we're both growing individually. And this is our path, and I think it's super fun to be able to experience this with someone that you care about and at the same time be challenged in your relationship."

And if one of them happens to be a Traitor and murders the other in the name of winning?

"We came into the game both wanting to win and so that's just part of the game," Jordan laughed. "We talked about it before; there's no hard feelings, but I definitely feel like if I get stabbed in the back by Larsa it'll sting a little bit, but I'll be alright."

Bling Empire's Kevin Kreider admitted that while he did have a strategy coming into the game, "Once I got here, it totally changed...There's so many different personalities. I almost have gone by the seat of my pants, moment to moment, just seeing what's going on."

He added: "Really what made me want to get on this show is, coming from a show where I was on all Asian-American cast, believe it or not, that's not really diversity to me, even though it was great to have Bling Empire be the first all Asian-American Netflix show.

"But what I wanted to do was get in front of a more diverse audience and also a white audience it was because it was very Asian-heavy watched show, especially in international countries, but I wanted to get in front of America. And I think when people think of America, they think of Peacock, they think of the network, so I just wanted to bring myself and my personality to the country."

Shahs of Sunset star Mercedes "MJ" Javid said she related to the idea of being an "underdog" compared to some of the reality heavy-hitters on the cast.

"I just rolled camera and interacted with my friends—albeit we would have scuffles, but it was months and months on years to figure out your stuff, right? But this is going to be so cutthroat...luckily I don't have a preconceived anything about you guys, which I'm happy [about] because I get to meet you guys on a clean slate," she said.

"But I don't know if that's the case for all of us, like if you guys saw or knew something about me or anyone in our group dynamic where you're like, 'Oh, I've never met her, but I don't like her.' Then we break those [preconceptions] by meeting each other and actually spending time with each other."

While the competitive nature of The Traitors might seem far removed from the glamorous locales of Love Island, both "Bergie" Bergersen and UK winner Ekin-Su Cülcüloğlu predicted that their emotional intelligence would be an asset in such a social game.

"My best strategy is just to be myself. I think that's what you have to go off of," said Bergersen, who earned fans (and romance) on Love Island USA thanks to his affable, everyman quality. "I love the rollercoaster of reality TV. I am someone that just thrives off of it. I love just feeling myself and exploring my emotions and getting in touch with them."

Cülcüloğlu pointed out that coming into the game with a strategy wouldn't necessarily serve them well: "Life is like that. You always plan for certain things, but then something happens, and your road changes. So you've got to be a bit spontaneous and emotionally intelligent for this game."

Former Bachelor "Pilot" Pete Weber is the second show alum to join the show after Season 1's Arie Luyendyk Jr. and admitted that what drew him to the series was simply that "this game looked fun as hell. It's obviously like a real-life game of Clue. I'd always wanted to do a cool, fun competition show, and being very competitive, this was right up my alley."

When asked whether he felt like being the only contestant from The Bachelor this season was a positive or a negative, Weber said, "I think it's probably an advantage not having anyone else from the show. Like no one truly knowing you and your personality, your ins and outs.

"Because there are a couple contestants that don't have that advantage, and whether there's beef there or not, at least they have a read on each other a little bit more. So being a lone wolf, I think, probably is an advantage."

RuPaul's Drag Race star Peppermint pointed out that Drag Race alums have plenty of competition experience, even if she admitted she saw herself as an "outlier" compared to some of the more physical competitors from other reality shows.

"On Drag Race, we don't jump in a lake or dig under the ground, but making an entire outfit and then having to model it is challenging. And I would love to see how people in this cast would do in that situation," she said with a laugh. "What you do on Drag Race is really about how much of your own personal talent and creativity and growth you are willing to have on that show.

"And so it doesn't really prepare you or position you well for something like this, which is like, everybody comes in, there's such big personalities from the start, and it's really about the strategy. There are some really strategic people on Drag Race, but on my game on Drag Race was pretty straightforward. Unless there's a gown-making competition or some lip sync thing, which I would love."

The Wild Cards

The Traitors Season 2 features some true curveball cast members, like Dancing With the Stars favorite Maksim Chmerkovskiy, former WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder, and perhaps the most left-field casting of all, UK politician John Bercow, the former Speaker of the House of Commons.

Chmerkovskiy admitted that his exit from DWTS informed his decision to join The Traitors—not least because of the condensed time frame of filming, which takes place over a few weeks rather than the several-month commitment of most reality competitions.

"It's a project that's a little different. I'm privy to 17 seasons of an amazing rotating stacked cast of personalities, and I missed it a little bit. Everybody [here] is a character," he said.

"The game here is about you, and you're by yourself in your own little bubble. And you try to [think] what alliances are you going to make here? There's zero trust...I have no idea how I would play it if there were people here from my show because then it'd be like, 'there's too much familiarity. I don't even want to look in that direction.' I would kind of overthink."

Following in the footsteps of Ryan Lochte in Season 1, Wilder is undoubtedly equipped for the show's physical challenges but might surprise viewers with his personality as a self-described "empath."

"I'm an emotional type of human being; I don't have no fear in expressing my emotions, whether it's crying, whether it's laughter, whether it's affirmation with words," he said. "Being that I am a fighter, I help other men to be comfortable with themselves and to step outside their box, especially when it comes to tears because we're all taught—for certain men in certain cultures—when you grow up, you're taught not to show no fear, don't cry because it shows weakness.

"And when guys see me in the occupation that I've done, to see me shed tears, it makes it seem like it's okay. So I'm looking forward to all the emotional roller coasters that the game has to offer."

Bercow, on the other hand, was drawn to the competition both for the chance to step out of his comfort zone as a 60-year-old who doesn't consider himself "particularly physically brave," and to dispel any preconceptions that viewers might have about his job.

"I'm sufficiently self-aware to know that if people have got any view about politics and politicians, they tend to think they're dishonest, untrustworthy liars, backstabbers, et cetera," Bercow said. "That's the stereotype. And I thought, well, I don't know whether I'm gonna be any good at this, but I'm very keen to play the role of a Faithful and to try to expose the Traitors...I'd quite like to flout the stereotype."

Putting it that way, having come from the vicious political jungle, Bercow could arguably be the most qualified player The Traitors has ever had.

The first three episodes of The Traitors Season 2 are now streaming on Peacock, with new episodes released weekly on Fridays.