Fans of “The Traitors” have come to love the deliciously devious scheming and backstabbing as a gaggle of reality TV stars attempt to eliminate each other within a historic Scottish castle — while host Alan Cumming presides over all the chicanery and skullduggery.
For the upcoming season set to air on NBC, “The Traitors: New Blood” has opened the castle doors to 22 everyday Americans, culled from a nationwide search of more than 60,000 hopeful applicants.
“In New Blood, most of the players will be designated as Faithful,” notes NBC. “But hidden amongst the Faithful are the Traitors, whose sole goal is to move through the game undetected, eliminate the Faithful, and claim the prize for themselves. By the end of the game, if any Traitors remain, they will claim the entire prize pool. (Conversely, if no Traitors remain, the prize pool will be split evenly between all remaining Faithful.) Throughout the game, the Traitors operate under the cover of darkness, electing one Faithful to ‘murder’ each episode as the Faithful attempt to identify the Traitors and banish them from the game.”
The Cast Revealed
Entertainment Weekly was the first to reveal the identities of the new cast members who’ll be entering the fray when the series arrives in the fall.
Ranging in age from 23 to 65, the cast includes a funeral director, a dog groomer, a barrel racer and even a Major League Baseball analyst.
Abbey Benjamin
A 37-year-old nurse from Mangham, Louisiana, Abbey Benjamin is determined to win the $250,000 prize.
“My strategy is to be myself,” Benjamin told EW. “I’m from Louisiana. I naturally love people. I love to get to know people, and I think that in a game like ‘The Traitors’ where trust is currency, by getting to know and getting to trust and get people to trust me, that’s gonna be a way that I can propel myself towards the end.
Abby Lee
Hailing from Saint Paul, Minnesota, 29-year-old Abby Lee is an astrophysicist, describing her job as being “all about using limited information that we can glean from research to understand and unlock secrets of the universe. And I feel those kinds of research skills and analytical skills are really gonna aid me in uncovering the Traitors in a very systematic way. And I’m excited to set a bunch of traps and stuff like that.”
In terms of strategy, she’s planning to model her game play on her “idol,” Tyrion Lannister of “Game of Thrones” fame. “He’s the hand of the king, not the very front man or center of attention, but kind of doing things behind the scenes,” she explains. “The important thing is you make allies really early on. That’s my number one goal for days one through three. And then I think days four through four plus, there are things you can do to catch Traitors.”
Arisa Thomas
Aged 36, L.A.-based dog groomer Arisa Thomas reveals a simple strategy that she thinks will take her competitors by surprise.
“I think I’m gonna win ‘The Traitors’ because I’m unassuming,” she explains. “All my friends tell me, ‘You’re the friendly, cute, bubbly one.’ And this is my chance to be a little deceptive and a little naughty … My strategy is to obviously just be myself, make friends, and stab them in the back when I need to.”
Ben McDonnell
A rodeo barrell racer from Granbury, Texas, Ben McDonnell, 34, believes he’s got the astrological upper hand.
“Because I’m a Gemini, so I already have a split personality,” he says, revealing he plans to “go in there and be everyone’s best friend, and then murder them one by one in the middle of the night.” A self-described people person, he’s “gonna be the social butterfly that kind of goes around everyone. I don’t wanna get stuck into one clique that’s too tight, and instead be everyone’s friend. And then hopefully murder them in the middle of the night.”
Clyde Moser
Having watched every season of pretty much every global iteration of “The Traitors,” 32-year-old Clyde Moser of Charleston, South Carolina has certainly done his research. “I’m a theater teacher, and so being in that world of theater, I’ve met so many people, and I understand different walks of lives. Because I’m a teacher, I understand the main concepts of the show, like conflict resolution. And a little bit of teaching also includes emotional manipulation. So I think all of the factors that come together make me the perfect mosaic to win.”
His strategy will be to “hide in plain sight if I’m a Traitor. And also make everyone laugh, because if everyone thinks that you’re positive and good to be around, then why would they want to get rid of you?”
Jay Vinnedge
This 36-year-old physician from Oklahoma City feels his varied life experience will be his secret weapon.
“I came from what was originally a single-parent household and joined the military when I was 19,” he tells Entertainment Weekly. “I was a medic, have been all over the world doing really hard things. I became a physician, so I had to go through all the medical training that comes with that. I forged through COVID in rural towns across Oklahoma. I continue to challenge myself to do hard things, and I’ve learned that when I do really scary hard things, I tend to come out on the other end and learn so much about myself. And the other thing is that I’m a huge student of competition reality shows … So I’m really a huge fan of the stories which are genuine that you can draw from as a viewer and relate with. So it’s about being authentically me.”
Joe Vanella
As a funeral director in Wantagh, New York, Joe Vanella tells EW that he’s “used to having conversations in emotionally charged environments. There’s no more emotionally charged environment than this, so all these other contestants are coming in sort of blind. I’ve been dealing with this my whole career. Just navigating that sort of challenge and having a leg up on everybody else I think is a very big advantage. Additionally, I’m from Long Island. We sniff out BS like nobody else. So it should be easy for me.”
He adds, “So my whole plan is to tell the truth as long as I can until I don’t have to anymore, and then lie when needed.”
Katie Fites
Twenty-three-year-old marketing manager Katie Fites of Jacksonville, Florida feels her youth will cause the other contestants to underestimate her. “So I think that you have to be incredibly tactical in this game, and you have to be able to use the people around you as allies, and maybe sometimes manipulators. And I’m incredibly competitive. So when you mix the two, it prepares a good batch for making it through the long run.”
A self-described “people person,” she’s planning to closely monitor the ebbs and flows of the game. “So I’m able to adapt to whatever gets thrown my way. I’m a very outgoing kind of quirky personality, so the chaos of the game and I will blend well, and I just wanna make sure that I’m still outgoing and goofy through the little moments.”
Kim Daily
Houston lawyer Kim Daily, 37, feels he’ll be a formidable presence. “Apparently, word on the street is that I’m intimidating,” he admits. “I’m going to do my best to make my affability more prominent than my intimidation, but word on the street is that I might make people feel some type of way as soon as I enter into a room. I think that I will be naturally targeted, and if I’m a Traitor, I have a little bit more control.”
His strategy will be “to get to know people at the very beginning as soon as we land off the train — to get to know people in a friendly way. And get to know them for who they are, get to know what their motivations are, and then see what I can do to help them with their motivations and their goals in a way that lines up with what my goals are as well.”
Kriste Lewis
A 52-year-old realtor from Hattiesberg, Mississippi, Kriste Lewis is going into the game and take things as they come.
“I’m really just gonna focus and have fun,” she says. “That’s kind of gonna be my motto going into this. Because there are so many moving parts in this game. I wanna be very authentic, even if I’m a Traitor. I wanna stay true to myself. So I’m just gonna have fun. I wanna meet all these other people. I’m feeling like they’re probably my kindred spirits and souls too, because they’re in this probably for the same reason I am, which is just to have a good time.”
Logan Smith
The season’s other realtor is 26-year-old Logan Smith of Gatlinburg, Texas, who believes he “brings some unique skillsets” to the table.
“I just wanna play the simple, honest, Southern guy, and as far as playing, I will be quite the opposite of that,” he hints. “So just wanna go in and play it kind of that way. I don’t wanna be this like terrible liar schemer, but at the same time, I’m definitely gonna be playing my fellow contestants like checker pieces if everything goes my way. I just wanna give off the impression that I’m just simple little Logan.”
Madeline Kostopulos
San Diego construction manager Madeline Kostopulos, 26, confidently declares, “I’m gonna win because I have an unlimited amount of luck, I have great intuition, and a great personality.”
She adds: “I’m just gonna maintain my integrity and be who I am — be a genuine person, and that has seemed to get me pretty far in life already. I’m just gonna keep going with that. Why deviate?”
Mark Zgoda
Mark Zgoda is a 26-year-old personal trainer from Phillipsburg, New Jersey, and describes himself as being “ultra-competitive in everything I do …”
His strategy will unfold in three phases: “Phase one is have really good relationships with everyone. People who try to get too smart or outsmart people right away, they put a target on their back. So I would definitely let people get each other out and just crush the missions and be excited to be there. Then, I’m trying to find like the two most trusted people in the room. I’m looking for the biggest name that is making the decisions, and then be their biggest number two — just hype them up and be their best friend because they’re getting all the heat and you’re still part of like their safe circle. And then when there’s, like, seven people left, then I get to actually step up in a more of a role and hopefully get recruited as a Traitor.”
Michael Foote
Based in New York City, 38-year-old attorney Michael Foote plans to “run the castle like a criminal defense. I’m a trial attorney. I’m in court almost every day litigating in front of a judge and in front of a jury. Everyone’s judging me, everyone’s watching my micro movements, trying to figure out what’s going on, whether or not my client’s guilty. So that’s why I’m gonna win ‘The Traitors’ is because I understand complex human behavior.”
He continues by explaining, “I’m pretty strategic. I work well as a duo. I really like working with a pair. So I’m gonna be looking for someone who is open to partnerships … I’m looking for someone who’s also going to be making big moves in the game and someone that I can really align myself to and trust. I think that many hands make light work, and I really see myself getting close to one person and really trusting them throughout the entirety of the game and winning it together.”
Morgan Cook
Aged 30, Midland, Michigan content creator Morgan Cook describes herself as “incredibly perceptive, and the right amount of paranoid in order to win it. My brain has been training me for something like this most of my life. Being very attentive to detail and overthinking a lot of things can be a little exhausting in real life, but I think it’ll be a real asset in this game, and will hopefully help get me to the end.”
Strategy-wise, she’ll be maintaining a low profile — at least at first. “I kinda plan to peel back the layers on myself,” she explains. “I wanna go in and get to know everyone, be relatively unassuming. I don’t wanna be the loudest voice in the room probably ever really in the game, but especially in the beginning. I wanna observe and take in information. And as the game ramps up, I plan to take what I’ve observed and start to share that with players in a strategic way where I’m not necessarily just sharing information willy-nilly. I wanna be very intentional about who I’m telling certain things to, because you never know when you’re talking to a Traitor.”
Niyyah Hayes
Niyyah Hayes is a 29-year-old therapist from Indianapolis, Indiana, which has left her skilled at “getting a lot of information from people without giving a lot of information about myself. I’m used to building rapport really quickly and being really mischievous, because everybody thinks that therapists give advice, but we don’t give advice. We really are just like a sounding board for you. So I repeat that and parrot the same things back to you and then you’re like, “Oh my God, this is an epiphany.” And I’m like, “Yeah, this is what I told you like two sessions ago, but sure.”
Her strategy is to become a chameleon while also being a social butterfly. “I plan to play a pretty heavy social capital,” she reveals. “So, making a lot of friends, gaining a lot of alliances while still keeping myself in the background. I don’t plan to go in too strong because I feel like those people always get voted out because they’re annoying, and because you just can’t trust someone who can’t shut up.”
Shane Beatty
Thirty-two-year-old Shane Beatty is an ironworker from Staten Island, New York, and figures his imposing size will disarm his competitors. “I truly feel like I give people a little bit of a shock because I come off not really how I look. I come off as very sweet. A lot of people call me a gentle giant. I’m gonna kill them with kindness. I’m gonna earn people’s trust, and once I get people’s trust, I could swing votes at the Roundtable and I think that would help me win ‘The Traitors.'”
Having gamed out various strategies, he’s decided his most effective gambit will be to simply go with the flow. “So all I can do is be myself in the castle and just go with whatever comes as it happens,” he muses.
Sherry Kuehl
At age 65, Leawood, Kansas writer Sherry Kuehl is the season’s oldest contestant — a trait she plans to use to her advantage. “At 65 years old, I have an abundance of life experience when it comes to gaslighting duplicity, and just my knowledge of how people work,” she explains. “You know, [when you’ve] been around the world a long time, you know how to read a room.”
She’ll be trying to fly under the radar, “My approach is I would never be the first person to ask a question at the Roundtable. That’s a bold move,” she observes. “And I applaud the person that makes that choice because I’m still reading the room. So it’s just the first day, play it cool, kinda do a mood board of everybody I meet, file that away. I want to get a lay of the land and then I’m gonna go in and try to get to know people. I’m a great person at any dinner party. So, you know, chit-chatting, finding out that kind of stuff, drawing people out. I wanna make myself a safe space. And meanwhile, I’m a Traitor.”
Tomica Adams
A 54-year-old pilot from Boston, Tomica Adams is determined to win. “I know how to work with people,” she says. “My job helps me work better with people and manage people and their opinions, their feelings, everything. So I’ll be able to manage it well and keep their perception of me where I want it to be and maneuver. So if I’m a Faithful and I get attacked, I’ll be able to convince people because I think I’ll also be able to defend them. If I’m a Traitor, I’ll be able to keep them off my trail. I’m determined, so it’s gonna work.”
Her secret weapon? “I am 100 percent authentic,” she declares. “My strategy is to be upfront. I’m not conniving. I don’t do it well. I don’t tell lies a lot. The only lie I wanna tell is that I’m a Traitor. Or should I say that I’m a Faithful? [Laughs] But I think that authenticity would carry me through to actually touch people and touch their heart to where they believe me. And I think the key is actually getting close to people and getting their belief and getting them on your side. So that’s my strategy, to win them over and play the mama role a little bit.”
Victor Vollbrechthausen
Hailing from the Big Apple, Victor Vollbrechthausen is a 26-year-old business executive who thinks players who enter the game with a mapped-out strategy are destined to fail.
“I think everybody’s kind of kidding themselves if you show up with a special strategy,” he explains. “I think the strategy is based off my peers who I’m gonna be playing with. I want to make friends fast. I think that’s the way to success, not necessarily lying my way through it. I wanna find four or five people that’s my posse that are people that I can really get along with and they’ll vouch for me. I think I could get pretty far.”
Wyatt Gillespie
Wyatt Gillespie, a 26-year-old designer from Ligonier, Pennsylvania, is a self-described “people-pleaser” who plans to “kill them with kindness and make it the entire way.”
He also sees himself as a natural leader, but plans to mute that aspect of his personality. “It’s really difficult to be a leader without getting called out,” he observes. “And so I think there’s a perfect balance between speaking up and not. I’m telling Alan exactly what I’ve told you — that I wanna play the game as kindly as possible, and be a completely different individual behind the scenes.”
Xavier Scruggs
A MLB analyst from Wesley Chapel, Florida, 38-year-old Xavier Scruggs exudes confidence.
“I just feel like I was built to win ‘The Traitors.’ I feel like naturally when I walk into a room or when I get around a lot of people, I’ve been able to gain trust easily, and hopefully I can use that to my advantage in the game,” he says.
It’s his adaptability that he believes will carry him through to the end. “So understanding when to change your alliance and how to gain multiple alliances is something that I would like to bring into the game,” he adds. And then if I’m a Faithful, I wanna set Traitor traps. There are opportunities within the game where Traitors have to do specific things in daylight, and there are opportunities to realize: Okay, when, when are those happening? You can start to smell those out a little bit and try to figure out ways with other Faithfuls to bel like, “Hey, let’s try to set this trap.”
When Does the New Season Begin?
“Traitors: New Blood” will make its debut Thursday, September 17 on NBC.
