TV
“The Traitors”: Celebrities lie and murder in the new RTL show
“Castle Mistress” Sonja Zietlow (front) welcomes the players of “The Traitors – Trust Nobody!” in front of the castle. photo
© Stefan Gregorowius/RTL/dpa
It actually sounds familiar: RTL puts celebrities in a house and lets the camera roll. The result is not trash TV, but an exciting children’s game under extreme conditions.
The reality crime format doesn’t go below the belt – although the prominent participants quickly forget the boundaries between the game and reality. “The Traitors – Trust No One!” runs on Wednesdays at 8:15 p.m. on RTL, and the episodes can be seen a week earlier on the streaming service RTL+.
The principle of the show is quickly explained and will be familiar to many viewers of youth games such as “Werewolf” or “Murder in the Dark”: Among the 16 celebrities are three “traitors” who take one participant out of the game every night by “murdering”. During the day they mingle with the good “loyal ones” again and act completely innocent. Once a day, the group meets at the “Round Table” and throws someone they have identified as a “traitor” out of the show.
Child’s play under extreme conditions
What was already a thrill in youth camps is taken to the extreme in the show. Because “The Traitors” is child’s play under extreme conditions: the celebrities were kept in the castle for days during the shoot. “We actually sent our prominent teammates to their rooms and they weren’t allowed to come out,” says producer Kirstin Benthaus-Gebauer.
The calculation works: Already on day one, the prominent participants got so involved that every gesture was interpreted as a clue and everything and everyone seemed suspicious: “I noticed that Pascal (Hens) had a very, very red head !”, one participant sees himself as a detective.
“It’s actually a bit like Columbo,” explains RTL editor Martin Wegner. As with the cult crime thriller, the audience finds out right from the start who “the bad guys” are. So you always know more than the participants and can get very excited or amused when someone has a particularly nasty scheme or is particularly wrong.
It is clear to the prominent participants that the psychological chamber play is getting on their nerves. Traitors have to constantly lie, “loyal” people can never be sure whether their seemingly friendly counterpart won’t kill them coldly the next night. Viewers thus become voyeurs of a group in an exceptional situation.
“I didn’t think it would change as quickly as it did today,” says actor Timothy Boldt in the first episode. The group dynamics are incredibly strong, you just get sucked in, says rapper Sabrina Setlur. When she watched the pilot episode, she had a lump in her throat: “I was really shocked. I don’t know myself like that at all,” she says. Pop singer Anna-Carina Woitschack says: “Of course you violate your own principles.”
Argumentative – but not ugly
Betrayal and false suspicions sometimes cause arguments – that makes producers and viewers happy. But even though you have to swallow a tear or two, it doesn’t get ugly. What’s special about the show is “that it’s great, intelligent, competent celebrities who play there, who always act at a certain level, even when they’re against each other. That was such a balm for the soul,” says presenter Sonja Zietlow also commented ironically on the “jungle camp”. “When I explain something, they listen to me and then they understand it. That’s not always the case, I really appreciated that.”
Included are “Supergeil” grandpa Friedrich Liechtenstein, sports presenter Ulrike von der Groeben, pop singer Vincent Gross, rapper Jalil and actors such as Florian Fitz (Dream Ship), Christine Urdict (Münster-Tatort) and Susan Sideropoulos (GZSZ). The makers also play with prejudices: Bond villain Claude-Oliver Rudolph? – He’s a born “traitor,” right? On the other hand, there are opportunities for popular figures like “Princess Charming” Irina Hülse: “I have a rather sweet image. But I would also like to unpack my evil side.”