- The Sun reports that production was not happy with the "Secret Traitor" twist on The Traitors.
- Donna Kelce (aka the Secret Traitor) was voted off early in the season, ruining "big plans for her."
- Secret Traitor drama aside, this season is absolutely killing it, and is the show's "best start yet."
Season 4 of The Traitors is my entire personality largely thanks to Rob Rausch's overalls, but apparently producers weren't thrilled about the whole "Secret Traitor" twist.
According to a "production source" in The Sun, the twist was "a huge miscalculation on production’s part" and "watching it back now, watching the audience response to it… it was a colossal mistake."
They added that "Producers saw a little area for opportunity, with the gamers always being picked as the Traitors. But the show made a massive overcorrection to that problem."
The Secret Traitor idea was apparently an attempt to "heighten the mystery" but "picking all the NBC stars as Traitors and not the gamers is something that will not happen again. Absolutely not."
Part of the problem with the Secret Traitor (aka Donna Kelce) was that her identity was found out pretty much right away, ruining producers' plans. "There were big plans for her that crumbled because she ended up being a terrible Traitor," the source explained. "She didn’t make it far enough to implement a lot of the twists and turns producers had planned. They never thought she’d be found out so fast. When she was a target in the first roundtable, producers were panicking."
As for whether or not a Secret Traitor twist could be implemented in follow-up seasons, the source says "It will absolutely not happen again."
For what it's worth, The Traitors has absolutely been killing it in the ratings—despite alleged drama over the Secret Traitor twist. Per The Hollywood Reporter, this season is the show's "best start yet" and "drew 638 million viewing minutes for the week of Jan. 5-11."
Congrats to my fave show!
