The Traitors S4 cast was the most stacked yet. The winner proved the format still rewards strategy over fame.

Peacock’s The Traitors wrapped its fourth season with the most decorated cast in the franchise’s short history: Lisa Rinna, Porsha Williams, Colton Underwood, Dorinda Medley, Tara Lipinski, Monét X Change, Rob Cesternino, Yam Yam Arocho, Ian Terry, Natalie Anderson — 23 people who collectively represent something like 60 prior seasons of reality TV experience.

The interesting thing about the season wasn’t who won. It was the casting thesis. The Traitors has effectively become a reality TV all-star tournament, in the same way Olympic curling is a recruiting funnel for elite-tier rock-throwers from countries that have those. And the way the cast performed — or, more often, didn’t — tells you something about what the format actually rewards.

The format’s quiet brutality

Most reality competition shows reward visibility. The Traitors punishes it.

A Faithful’s job is to figure out which of their housemates is lying to them. If you’re a recognizable reality TV personality — particularly one with a known TV persona that involves shouting, scheming, or being theatrically untrustworthy — you are unbelievably easy to read. Lisa Rinna’s first interview was Lisa Rinna’s last interview. Everybody could already tell when Lisa Rinna was lying because she’d been lying on television for fifteen years and the entire round table had Bravo subscriptions.

That’s why the Survivor alumni have always done well on this show and the Bravolebrities have struggled. Survivor trains contestants in being illegible. Real Housewives franchises train contestants in being maximally legible. The Traitors house is the wrong room for the latter skill.

What the winner’s run tells us

Without spoiling the finale for people who haven’t watched yet, the winner this season was, again, someone whose pre-existing TV persona was relatively muted — not a household name, not a meme, not someone you’d recognize at the airport. That’s now four for four. The Traitors has never been won by its most famous cast member.

Which is interesting, because Peacock keeps casting around the assumption that bigger names drive more viewing. The data probably bears that out at the top of the funnel. But the show itself keeps producing winners who weren’t the show’s marketing image. That’s an unstable equilibrium and at some point the casting team will get pulled in two directions: pre-season metrics versus actual gameplay.

The Alan Cumming question

The other thing the season made clear: Alan Cumming is now load-bearing for this franchise. His tonal register — performatively gothic, gently sarcastic, willing to read someone for filth in a fake-Scottish accent — is the show’s actual product. The contestants rotate. Alan is the brand.

This is the same lesson Bravo learned with Andy Cohen and Watch What Happens Live. The talent on top of the show eventually becomes the show. Peacock would be smart to start thinking of Alan Cumming as a development partner, not a host.

Where this lands

Casting for Traitors S5 is reportedly already underway. The cast leak rumors are extensive and unreliable; we won’t repeat them. But the strategic decisions Peacock is about to make will be revealing.

Do they keep escalating the celebrity wattage and accept that the show’s biggest names won’t win? Or do they start mixing in more game-show veterans — the Yam Yams and Rob Cesterninos and Natalie Andersons — who actually know how to play it?

The most interesting answer is probably “both.” But the cast list will tell us soon enough what they decided.