{"id":274785,"date":"2026-01-08T21:35:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T21:35:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/274785\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T21:35:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T21:35:08","slug":"would-the-bbcs-secret-traitor-twist-work-on-the-irish-version-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/274785\/","title":{"rendered":"Would the BBC\u2019s secret traitor twist work on the Irish version? \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Back-stabbing reality hit The Traitors<\/b> is such a perfect format that television producers surely tinker with it at their peril. Yet that is what the BBC<\/a> has done with the fourth season of the British edition of the show (fifth if you include the recent Celebrity Traitors<\/a>). <\/p>\n

Presumably worried that the novelty is starting to wear off, they\u2019ve introduced a new gimmick: a \u201csecret\u201d traitor, in red robes, who operates the marionette strings off camera (their identity concealed from viewers and contestants alike).<\/p>\n

Setting aside the point that all traitors are secret by definition \u2013 otherwise they wouldn\u2019t be traitors, they would be villains \u2013 the innovation has undoubtedly altered the chemistry of the series. <\/p>\n

It has also yielded its share of television gold \u2013 as proved by the priceless expression on the faces of traitors Rachel (a 42-year-old marketing executive from Co Down<\/a>) and Stephen when they discovered that the secret puppetmaster was Welsh local government official Fiona.<\/p>\n

They gasped, they gurned, they laughed at the impertinence of their dark overlord \u2013 whose job it was to present the actual traitors with a shortlist of murder victims each night. A week into the latest season, the twist sprinkled on some much-needed post-Christmas spice.<\/p>\n

That said, you do wonder if the \u201cSecret Traitor\u201d mechanic would work on the Irish edition. Season one on RT\u00c9<\/a> was a huge hit \u2013 the final drew a blockbusting 750,000 viewers and gave the country the overnight boomer celebrity we didn\u2019t know we needed in hug-averse former prison officer Paudie Moloney.<\/p>\n

But it worked in part because the basic idea was so straightforward: send a random collection of people from all walks of life to Slane Castle<\/a> in Co Meath<\/a> and watch them merrily knife one another in the figurative back. Introducing a secret traitor would complicate a formula that has the virtue of being simple and which gave traitors such as Paudie and Nick carte blanche to weave their deceptions.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Backstabbing, cliques, lies \u2026 The Traitors Ireland is every office you\u2019ve worked in<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Imagine how much less dastardly they would have been had they been required to always glance over their shoulders, wondering who in the castle was pushing their buttons off camera. It would have brought an extra layer of strategy \u2013 but would it have been any more fun, for them or us?<\/p>\n

\"ContestantsContestants James and Rachel in BBC1’s The Traitors. Photograph: Euan Cherry\/PA <\/p>\n

The latest UK Traitors had several other shocks up its sleeve. Contestants Judy and Roxy are mother and daughter, while Ellie and Ross (ejected in a surprise Wednesday night round table) were a couple. Yes, RT\u00c9\u2019s Traitors has already gone there with the casting of secret father and son, Paudie and Andrew. <\/p>\n

But with three distinct gimmicks this season, there is evidence that the makers of the British version are terrified of the blueprint going stale.<\/p>\n

RT\u00c9 need have no such worries. The Irish Traitors was a masterclass in skulduggery and rug-pulling. Whether it was Paudie hiding in plain sight as a traitor or the bromantic duo of Nick and Ben high-fiving each other at every chance, the show was a clean-running engine of subterfuge and double speak. <\/p>\n

Bringing in a red-robed secret traitor would only complicate matters \u2013 and, as everyone in Ireland knows, there\u2019s nothing worse than a party-crasher with an over-the-top dress sense.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Back-stabbing reality hit The Traitors is such a perfect format that television producers surely tinker with it at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":274786,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[3412,17927,18,117,19,17,1873,1181,48013],"class_list":{"0":"post-274785","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-bbc","9":"tag-down","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-meath","15":"tag-rte","16":"tag-slane-castle"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115861633425528839","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=274785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274785\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/274786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=274785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=274785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=274785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}