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What started as De Verraders way back in 2021 has become a global reality phenomenon: Peacock in the U.S. hosts the American version with the sartorially supreme Alan Cumming, and also the earlier UK take as well as iterations from Australia, Canada, and New Zealand—but there are spin-offs in France, India, Germany, Ireland, Turkey, and more. Basically, throw a dart at a map and you’re likely to hit a country with its own take on The Traitors. And yet! The addictive nature of reality TV means that we can’t really ever get enough. In that spirit, here’s more backbiting reality TV, and a couple of dramas that offer up similarly duplicitous thrills.
The Mole (2001 – 2008, 2022 – 2024)
A reality show with a complex history as relates to The Traitors, the premise being so similar that it may well have served as an inspiration. Here, players participate in collaborative missions in order to build a prize fund. But it’s not all fun and games: There’s a secret double agent among the group (the mole, obviously) whose sole task is to undermine the ability of the rest of the group to earn money. Eliminations are done via quiz: The group is grilled on the information they’ve collected about the mole, and whoever knows the least gets the boot. Originally airing in the aughts, Netflix brought it back for a couple of seasons more recently, with the potential for more to come. Stream the most recent seasons of The Mole on Netflix.
The Devil’s Plan (2023 – )
If there were a prize for dramatic title (and set design), you could do a lot worse than this one. In this South Korean reality show, 12 celebrity contestants are challenged to build a prize pot through strategy games. Sometimes they’re collaborative, sometimes entirely competitive, and sometimes a blend, but prizes come in the form of “Pieces” that can be won or lost (and that eventually combine to create their own final puzzle). Anyone who finds themselves without a single Piece is out. Pieces can be spent to buy advantages, and also traded, so the show turns on players forming alliances in order to build the prize pot and survive as long as possible. Stream The Devil’s Plan on Netflix.
The Circle (2020 – )
Here, a bunch of strangers are holed up in an apartment building, cut off from the outside world—and each other. Players can only interact via a custom app, and, thus, can portray themselves however they want, whether that means being 100% genuine (unlikely!) or creating a whole new persona. Players judge the competition based on their interactions, determining the “Influencers” who will get to decide on the eliminations. The show ran for seven seasons on Netflix, and is moving to Hulu for the forthcoming eighth. Stream The Circle on Hulu.
Million Dollar Secret (2025 – )
You show up at a fancy hotel, and someone hands you a suitcase containing one million dollars. It’s yours to keep—as long as you can keep it a secret. In this one, all the contestants get a suitcase, and only one contains the money. Much as with The Traitors, the goal is to figure out who’s keeping the secret, with challenges designed to help flush that person out. If the truth is discovered via a vote, that former millionaire is ousted and the money is concealed in another suitcase until the final contestants are given the opportunity to swap bags with someone who they think has the money. Easy come, easy go, I guess. Stream Million Dollar Secret on Netflix.
House of Villains (2023 – )
I’m a little more into the normies on Traitors myself, but there’s no question that a big part of the appeal (for most seasons) is watching reality-show celebs go at it with cash on the line. So it is with House of Villains, a Big Brother-style competition with Joel McHale as ringmaster. The core premise is pretty simple: villains (Richard Hatch, Tom Sandoval, Jonny Fairplay, one-time Trump bestie Omarosa Newman, etc.) compete in challenges for rewards and for safety from the inevitable banishment. It’s all mostly an excuse to watch some of TV’s biggest personalities go for each other’s jugulars. Stream House of Villains on Peacock.
The 8 Show (2024)
This is not a reality show, but rather a drama about a reality show that may well slake your thirst for treachery while offering up consequences a bit more dramatic than the bruised egos and hurt feelings of The Traitors. Here, eight strangers are selected to compete in a game in which they’re locked together in a building and sequestered on different floors each night. They earn money for each minute they last in the game, but all their provisions must be purchased with money they’ve won, at an extreme markup. At first, the contestants pool their resources so that everyone gets more money—until they learn that people on higher floors are getting more. Then things get nasty Stream The 8 Show on Netflix.
The Trust: A Game of Greed (2024)
This one plays a bit like The Traitors in reverse: A $250,000 prize pot is, right off the bat, allocated to all 11 contestants who get to hang out in a luxurious villa. So the game isn’t about winning money so much as it is about how much you’ll keep and how much you’re willing to share. Eliminations offer the opportunity to remove those who the others don’t want to share with—though contestants don’t have to actually ever vote anyone out. They can just keep their portion of the money and hang out, something that obviously does not happen. Challenges along the way force contestants to reveal embarrassing and sometimes ugly truths about themselves that may well put them on the outs with the others. There’s only one season at present, though there’s potential for more. Stream The Trust on Netflix.
Outlast (2023 – )
Blending the Big Brother-esque social aspects of Traitors with Survivor‘s love of the great outdoors, this one drops four teams of four into the Alaskan wilderness (moving to Panama for season three). The contestants are all, by inclination, loners, but the game has only one core rule: Only a team (of at least two) can win, so while the game has the typical reality show eliminations, these wilderness enthusiasts must work together in order to take the money. In the same way that The Traitors creates a tension between competition and cooperation via its communal prize pot, Outlast sees its contestants forced to maintain relationships whether they like it or not. Stream Outlast on Netflix.
007: Road to a Million (2023 – )
The tasks on Traitors aren’t typically the most thrilling part of the show, which makes this James Bond-branded competition a solid match if you want more complicated and better developed challenges. In this one, nine teams of two visit exotic locations in each episode and compete in spy-themed activities with the ultimate goal of winning £1 million by making it to the end. It leaves out the bits where people sit around a castle strategizing, but it includes, like Traitors, a dapper Scotsman not afraid to camp it up—in this case, Brian Cox, serving as the spymaster who directs the teams in their missions. Stream 007: Road to a Million on Prime Video.
Squid Game (2021 – 2025)
Squid Game: The Challenge would probably be a more reasonable choice for this list—given that it’s a proper reality show and not a blood-chilling thriller. But I’m sticking with the original drama here since, as perfectly entertaining as that spin-off is, it feels like it misses the point. In the original (surprise smash hit) drama, 454 needy contestants are recruited for a new reality competition in which they’re tasked to play rather simple children’s games—with deadly consequences that are cheered on by the wealthy financiers who are willing to pay good money to watch both the poors go at each other, as people turn on each other to survive and to win the rather shockingly large prize. A bit like The Traitors if all of Alan’s murder schtick were literally true. Stream Squid Game on Netflix.
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This articles is written by : Nermeen Nabil Khear Abdelmalak
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