“The Traitors” is changing the game for its next season.
“The Traitors: New Blood” will feature the first entirely civilian cast in the U.S. franchise, replacing the reality stars and celebrities who have populated recent seasons with 22 everyday Americans.
Alan Cumming returns to host as the players head to Scotland to compete for a prize pot worth up to $250,000.
Who Is Competing on ‘The Traitors: New Blood’?
The new cast ranges in age from 23 to 65 and comes from an unusually varied mix of professions.
The lineup includes nurse Abbey Benjamin, astrophysicist Abby Lee, dog groomer Arisa Thomas, barrel racer Ben McDonnell and funeral director Joe Vanella.
Other contestants include lawyers, realtors, a physician, a teacher, and former MLB player and current analyst Xavier Scruggs.
Entertainment Weekly spoke with all 22 contestants before the season, and players arrived with very different ideas about whether they would rather be a Faithful or a Traitor and how they plan to survive the game.
How the All-Civilian Season Changes ‘The Traitors’
The core format remains familiar. Some contestants will secretly become Traitors and eliminate players while the Faithfuls try to identify and banish them before reaching the end.
What changes is the baggage everyone brings into the castle. Unlike recent seasons, the players will not enter with established reality TV reputations or celebrity relationships that other contestants can use to judge them.
The first trailer suggests that anonymity will not make the game any less intense. One player called the experience “sick and twisted,” while another accused someone of “bald-faced lying.”
Fans will soon find out whether newcomers play differently from seasoned reality stars. “The Traitors: New Blood” premieres Sept. 17 at 8 p.m. ET on NBC and streams the following day on Peacock.
