The Traitors might be over on both sides of the Atlantic for another season, but now audiences in the States and the UK in particular are getting caught up on the respective second seasons as they land on Peacock and BBC iPlayer. And for any self-confessed Traitors super-fan like me, there's one thing about the show – no matter what iteration you watch – that really gets on peoples nerves: the challenges are really boring, especially when you have to watch them twice!
While talking to Season 1 finalist of The Traitors UK Wilfred Webster about what it takes to be a successful Traitor, I aired these two grievances with him about the challenges. Namely that a lot of viewers find them incredibly boring and have admitted to skipping them.
Admittedly, I don't actually mind the challenges. But one thing that has put me off, and that other viewers also aren't super happy about is that the US and UK challenges are almost exactly the same. That means any Traitors evangelists (hello!) binge-watching all the show's iterations back-to-back might find it all a bit...same-y, which takes me back to my original point: a lot of fans find them to be the worst part of the show.
Me watching Traitors during roundtable // Me watching Traitors during challenges. pic.twitter.com/mVoGLVNHODApril 9, 2024
However, alongside some great behind-the-scenes The Traitors trivia, Wilf had something to say about fans complaining about challenges on The Traitors – myself included.
When I spoke to Wilf, while I had watched the UK and Australian versions, I admitted to not yet watching The Traitors US due to its similarities with the UK version. But Wilf was adamant that is not the case. For starters, all the challenges are not exactly the same when it comes to the US and UK versions.
There's a couple of them that are different, but the first season they, they had like, two of them that were different, I think, and the rest of them were exactly the same. But realistically, everybody complains about the challenges, right? Loads of the challenges.
Of course, it makes sense there would be similarities. Both versions are filmed in the same scenic location in the Scottish Highlands, reportedly with the US contestants going in immediately after the UK has wrapped. As Wilf said, though, there were a couple of different challenges between the two iterations. So that was me told, and I was given my marching orders to get watching.
As for those who simply couldn't care less about the challenges, period, Wilf had this to say:
Everyone keeps complaining about the challenges, right? So it's like, OK, you can still watch a US version then and just not watch the challenges, like you'd still, ‘cause you're still getting a different narrative that's going on in the castle, because everyone's different; you don't know people's game plans. People go in there with different strategies.
I hear you Wilf! Essentially, then, if you want to watch multiple iterations of the The Traitors, there's no real reason to be put off by the challenges.
If you really want to, you can skip them. (It'll mean more time to squeeze in watching other shows from the 2024 TV schedule). But, as Wilf pointed out, regardless of similar formats, the contestants and narratives they create across seasons and iterations will be massively different.
You've got different personalities and strategies being implemented across all versions and even from season to season within the same iterations. Not to mention, while the UK contestants are just regular folks like you and I, The Traitors US has a bunch of celebrities you may well find familiar.
Either way, whether you want to watch The Traitors UK or the US one with Alan Cumming at the helm, you can stream both with a Peacock subscription, with episodes of The Traitors UK Season 2 currently dropping on the streaming service. But I definitely recommend giving both a watch, no matter the similarities. As CinemaBlend's Corey Chichizola discovered, the shift from celebrities to not is a real gamechanger on The Traitors.
