12 Shows Like The Traitors You Need To Watch

"The Traitors" — specifically, the US version — is back for its third season, and if you love backstabbing, intrigue, and social gameplay, this reality competition show is definitely the right fit for you. Led by Alan Cumming as the host — who's always clad in a different phenomenal outfit and really plays up both the show's campiest aspects and his natural Scottish brogue — the show is basically a large scale version of the party game Mafia, in that each season kicks off with Cumming choosing three "traitors" to play amongst "faithfuls" in a Scottish castle. Throughout the game, the Traitors "kill" other players by selecting who leaves the game; after a murder occurs, all the players sit at a roundtable and decide to "banish" someone who could be a Traitor. (Naturally, the odds are in favor of the Traitors, and the Faithfuls usually knock off a few of their own before figuring out who's actually causing trouble.) Here's the kicker: at the very end of the show, if any Traitors remain lurking amongst clueless Faithfuls, they'll take home the entire prize pot that all players worked to build up through various difficult challenges. 

There are versions of "The Traitors" all over the world; the original version, "De Verraders," began in Denmark, and now there are takes on "The Traitors" everywhere from Australia to Belgium to the United Kingdom to Hungary (and several more on the way). You can certainly watch "The Traitors UK" or "The Traitors Australia" to scratch the same itch that "The Traitors US" satisfies, but once you're done with those, check out these reality TV shows with the same wild, over-the-top energy as "The Traitors US."

Even though "The Challenge" is actually a spin-off of two famous MTV reality competition shows — specifically, "The Real World" and "Road Rules" — it's firmly established its place in the reality TV hall of fame, especially when you consider that it's been on for a whopping 40 seasons. Much like "The Traitors," "The Challenge" usually assembles its casts using reality TV legends and pits them against one another; instead of "Traitors" and "Faithfuls," "The Challenge" splits people up by gender, their most prominent personality traits, or other seemingly arbitrary factors (one time, it was just ex-partners of the contestants). Also like "The Traitors," people compete in various, well, challenges, and then the group decides who to eliminate (the criteria for that part changes with each season).

If you're current on "The Traitors US," you know that veterans of "The Challenge" have competed on Alan Cumming's Peacock show before ... and they've performed pretty admirably. Notably, in Season 2 of "The Traitors US," "Big Brother" and "The Challenge" buddies Trishelle Cannatella and Chris "CT" Tamburello won the whole damn thing, edging out fellow Faithful Mercedes "MJ" Javid (from "Shahs of Sunset") to take the cash for themselves. If you want to check out players like Trishelle and CT in their element, "The Challenge" is streaming on Paramount+.

Aside from "The Real World" and "Survivor" (more on the latter in a moment), it's safe to say that "Big Brother" helped truly kick off the age of reality TV competitions that we're living in right now. "Big Brother" — which, like "The Traitors," began in the Netherlands in 1997 before coming to American television — launched on CBS in the summer of 2000 and became one of the biggest TV sensations of all time, sticking its players into the same house and letting them clash for the benefit of the audience. Here's the gist: all the contestants, referred to simply as "Houseguests," are sequested from the world and stuck in the house, continuously filmed and recorded as they butt heads, and the house has to come together to "evict" contestants throughout each season, leaving just one player to win the $750,000 prize.

Like "The Challenge," a ton of "Big Brother" favorites have played "The Traitors US," with varying degrees of success. In the first season, which mixed "normal" people with reality TV royalty, Cody Calafiore ("Big Brother 16") and Rachel Reilly ("Big Brother 12") both competed but were banished. In Season 2, Dan Gheesling — regarded as one of the best "Big Brother" players in the show's history — completely whiffed his job as a Traitor and was banished shortly after his fellow "Big Brother" veteran Janelle Pierzina, a Faithful who was unfairly banished. "Big Brother," which has been on TV for over 25 seasons, is available to stream on Paramount+.

The grand dame of American reality television, "Survivor," is a comforting constant in our increasingly chaotic world; the show has been on CBS since 2000, and Jeff Probst, who became an executive producer well into the show's run, has been hosting the program since its inception. The concept is simple: a group of players are stranded in a remote location and left to fend for themselves while they're split into either two or three tribes. At first, whole tribes compete for the Immunity Idol, meaning they're safe from Tribal Council — during which one player is voted out of the game — but once the tribes are considerably winnowed down, they all merge into one, at which point the players compete for individual Immunity Idols. Past a certain point in the game, the players who were voted out by their peers become the "jury," the voting body that decides who earns the title of Sole Survivor and a prize of $1 million.

"Survivor" might seem like a game where the physically strongest players always reign supreme, but much like "The Traitors," the game is more social than you'd expect; the savviest social players typically come out on top, whether they're forging strong alliances or stabbing their new friends in the back. Throughout "The Traitors US," "Survivor" players have done very well — in the first season, "Survivor" legend Cirie Fields, a Traitor, manipulated two Faithfuls and to masterfully ejected one final Traitor from the game so that she could steal all the cash for herself. Parvati Shallow, who won the sixteenth season of "Survivor," was chosen as a Traitor in Season 2 but banished partway through — though her signature headbands became one of the season's most memorable pieces of iconography — and Parvati's "Heroes v. Villains" competitor Sandra Diaz-Twine finished the season in fifth place. "Survivor" is also available to stream on Paramount+.

Remember "Deal or No Deal," the Howie Mandel-hosted game show where people had to pick numbered briefcases hoping that there might be a whole lot of money inside? Meghan Markle was one of the girls holding said briefcases? Anyway, there's a new "Deal or No Deal" in town, and this time, it's on an island. (No, that's not a joke!) Contestants on "Deal or No Deal Island" are hosted by Joe Mangianello instead of Mandel, who walks them through "excursions" (physical challenges for the players to discover hidden briefcases on the aforementioned island), the "Banker's Challenge" (a game of traditional "Deal or No Deal" involving the Banker making financial offers, likely to an "excursion" winner), and the final game, which is just a regular game of "Deal or No Deal" where the Banker eventually reveals their identity (which is kept secret throughout the season). (Mandel, predictably, was the Banker in Season 1.)

One of the best aspects of "The Traitors US" is that the show is just silly; people spend an inordinate amount of time laying in coffins, performing unbelievably silly and borderline humiliating tasks, and watching Alan Cumming have the time of his damn life as host. That's why "Deal or No Deal Island" is a pretty good counterpart — it's just a silly, fun time that doesn't require a whole lot of brainpower. Plus, remember Parvati Shallow? She's competing on Season 2 of "Deal or No Deal," if that sweetens the deal.

"The Mole" has existed in a few different ways on American television throughout the years. In 2001, the series premiered on ABC with Anderson Cooper as the host, and he stuck around for the two original seasons; when the show brought celebrities on as contestants for Seasons 3 and 4, former sportscaster Ahmad Rashad came on board as host. (There's also a fifth season hosted by Jon Kelley that aired in 2008, but most fans have forgotten about that installment.) In 2022, the show was revived by Netflix with MSNBC anchor Alex Wagner as the host, but she departed after one season and passed the torch to radio journalist Ari Shapiro.

So what is "The Mole?" Basically, the network — which now refers to Netflix — chooses one player out of the incoming group to work as a "mole" and sabotage challenges to keep the rest of the players from building up the prize pot. The titular Mole can't win, but they can keep the other players guessing, which is important ... because at the end of each episodes, they all take a quiz asking genuinely difficult questions about what "the Mole" was doing during challenges, including what they were wearing, how they participated, and where they stood. The person with the lowest score each week goes home. You can quite clearly see how "The Mole" connects to "The Traitors" — in that the players have to sniff out a rat in their midst — and you can stream the newest version of it on Netflix.

At this point, "Claim to Fame's" claim to fame, so to speak, is the fact that Tom Hanks' niece Carly Reeves had a giant meltdown on national television during Season 2 (no, really; if you haven't seen her absolutely freak out over being outed as the "Castaway" star's relative, it's kind of awesome). The premise should seem obvious based on all of that information, but here are the basics anyway: Kevin and Frankie Jonas host a competition where people with tenuous connections to huge Hollywood stars have to figure out who's related to who(m). Throughout various challenges, the contestants are given cryptic clues about the fact that one of their fellow players is, let's say, Simone Biles' sister (that really happened in Season 1), but if that episode's "guesser" is correct, the person they identify leaves the game.

"Claim to Fame" is, like "The Traitors US" and "Deal or No Deal Island," unbelievably silly and requires some capacity for deception, so if you've watched all of "The Traitors" already or you just want to see another Reeves-style tantrum, "Claim to Fame" is available to stream on Hulu.

Like "The Traitors," Netflix's original reality competition "The Trust: A Game of Greed" requires players to work together to either take home or split a cash prize — $250,000, to be precise — and also requires a healthy amount of lying and trickery. In the show's only season to date, eleven complete strangers are offered a total of $250,000 and given the opportunity to vote people out, meaning that each person would receive more money at the end of the game; there's also a setting in the game called The Vault, where players can make secret deals in order to potentially increase their own winnings.

The first season of "The Trust: A Game of Greed" ended up with five winners, some of whom got slightly larger payouts than the rest (although four out of the show's eleven players got nothing for their trouble), which also feels similar to "The Traitors" (in that multiple people can win the game). There's only one season of "The Trust: A Game of Greed" available to stream, but it's waiting for you on Netflix.

In 2023, Eon Productions and Amazon Prime Video teamed up to create "007: Road to a Million" and, in the process, crafted a very different take on the "James Bond" franchise. The series, which is directly tied to the "Bond" films, takes two teams of nine people and has them compete in spy-themed challenges to try to win £1 million (yes, that's in pounds, not dollars), and they're all directed by the "Controller," a mysterious presence who operates as sort of a traditional "Bond" villain. In the first season, the "Controller" is none other than "Succession" star Brian Cox, who, like Alan Cumming, is a charismatic and talented Scotsman happy to indulge in some campiness for a game show.

"007: Road to a Million" is plenty of fun and definitely has the same vibe as "The Traitors," but the funniest piece of lore involved with this show is the fact that when Cox signed on, he thought he was joining the cast of an actual "James Bond" movie. ""I thought it was the new James Bond film," Cox told Jimmy Fallon on "The Tonight Show." "So I said, 'Oh, finally, they're getting me in a James Bond movie.' I said, 'Yes, of course!' There was no script. And there was no James Bond movie." Still, at least Cox says he enjoyed it: ""It was fun, it was great fun. I mean, I love bossing people around. I bossed all these people around. It's a really good show." Cox's performance on "007: Road to a Million" is a total blast, and it's streaming on Amazon Prime Video now.

Bravo's "Real Housewives" spin-off "Vanderpump Rules" isn't a reality competition show, but it has enough backstabbing, betrayal, and villainy that it almost makes "The Traitors" look like a quiet knitting circle. Introduced in 2011 after main cast member Scheana Shay had an affair with the husband of then-"Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" star Brandi Gianville — who appeared on Season 1 of "The Traitors US" — the show, led by restauranteur and fellow housewife Lisa Vanderpump, chronicles the lives of young, hot, and extremely deranged servers at Vanderpump's West Hollywood restaurant SUR, and in literally every season, at least one cast member does something so despicable to their friends and loved ones that even Alan Cumming would blush. (Also, for the uninitiated, SUR stands for "Sexy Unique Restaurant," and if that doesn't hook you on this show, nothing else will.)

"Vanderpump Rules" is, without question, one of the most over-the-top and wild reality shows in the entire history of the genre, and if that's not enough, Tom Sandoval — the "Vanderpump" hero-turned-villain whose affair with a cast member created the sensation known as "Scandoval" — appears on Season 3 of "The Traitors US." If you really want to understand why this guy sucks so hard, you'll have to start "Vanderpump Rules," which is streaming on Peacock, from the very beginning. (Also, Stassi Schroeder-Clark should appear on "The Traitors US" at some point, if we live in a just and fair world.)

Like "Vanderpump Rules," "The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City" isn't a competition, but it very well might be the best modern entry into the "Housewives" franchise — and in the now-infamous Season 3 finale, the Utah-based cast literally sniffs out a traitor in their midst. The women who make up the cast of "Salt Lake City" are particularly weird, even for Bravo housewives; Meredith Marks is physically incapable of staying at any hotel or residence without a bathtub, for example, and Mary Cosby is legally married to her own grandfather. (They're not related by blood, but still.) 

The most "Traitors"-esque twists found on "Salt Lake City" are, frankly, incredible; in Season 2, cast member Jen Shah is arrested on camera for running a telemarketing scheme that defrauded the elderly, and in Season 4, amateur sleuth Heather Gay figures out that a newcomer to the friend group has been selling secrets. Even if you're a "Housewives" newbie, "Salt Lake City," which is also on Peacock, will definitely hook you.

If you like "The Traitors US" but wish that every single player was just an irredeemable or perhaps even legendary reality TV jerk, "House of Villains" might be the right fit for you. Like "The Traitors US," players on "House of Villains" are reality TV veterans — specifically known for reprehensible behavior — compete in challenges known as "Battle Royales," and each week's winner is named the "Supervillain of the Week" and can't be voted out. The Supervillain of the Week also gets to "nominate" fellow players for the dubious honor of joining the "Hit List," and someone from that list goes home at the end of each episode.

Everyone from Jonny Fairplay ("Survivor") to Omarosa Manigault Newman ("The Apprentice") to Jax Taylor ("Vanderpump Rules") and Teresa Giudice ("The Real Housewives of New Jersey") has competed on "House of Villains," meaning that the cast is made up of the absolute worst kind of reality TV royalty. "House of Villains" is streaming on Peacock now, in case you love "The Traitors" but want everyone to be a lot worse.

Have you seen "Squid Game," the popular South Korean Netflix series where 456 people compete for a giant cash prize and are murdered in cold blood every time they're eliminated from a challenge? Would you like to see a real-life version of that? Despite the fact that a "real 'Squid Game'" sounds upsetting at best and extremely illegal at worst, Netflix went ahead and created "Squid Game: The Challenge," which pits 456 players against each other for $4.56 million. Like "The Traitors," it requires contestants to stab each other in the back, but thankfully, it's not literal.

There's honestly not a lot to explain about "Squid Game: The Challenge" except to say that nobody actually dies (the contestants are "shot" with paintballs, which is a relatively tasteless touch) and it's sort of rough to watch people don the "Squid Game" uniforms and mimic a show about the horrors of capitalism and income inequality. Anyway, "Squid Game: The Challenge" is on Netflix.