If you haven’t seen any season of The Traitors, you’ve been missing out. Peacock’s American reality competition series — which is based on a British series of the same name, which is, in turn, based on a Dutch series centered on the same concept — essentially follows the rules of the party game Mafia: Among a group of contestants working together to earn a cash prize, a select few are secretly hand-picked to play the role of “Traitors” in hopes of sabotaging the group and winning the money for themselves, while the rest of the group attempts to suss out who the Traitors are.
The show has not only earned a diehard fanbase, but it has also won a number of awards, including three Emmys. One of those Emmys went to Alan Cumming, who won Outstanding Host for a Reality or Reality Competition Program, and for good reason. Draped in fabulous outfits for every occasion, Cumming drips with cheeky charisma as he ushers contestants from one challenge to another and oversees the primary game.
Hot off the season 4 and season 5 renewal of The Traitors, which has also been nominated for another four Emmys this year, Rotten Tomatoes Awards Editor Jacqueline Coley sits down with the Emmy- (and Tony Award)-winning veteran actor to talk about the hit show and his career, including his upcoming return to the role of the X-Men mutant known as Nightcrawler in Avengers: Doomsday.
Check out all episodes of The Traitors available now on Peacock, and we’ll see you on the next stop on the Awards Tour.
Jacqueline Coley for Rotten Tomatoes: You, as the host, should get an Emmy because you have to keep a straight face when these people are lying through their teeth. How do you practice that as a host?
Alan Cumming: I mean, it’s just like acting, you know? It’s sort of like, I just have to think of it as a character, and I just have stay in character, really. Between takes and between things, I don’t speak to them, like chit chat. There’s times when we’re filming, and I’ll do the housekeeping and stuff, like “Players, you must not speak.” You know, things like that. And I’ll tell them what’s going to happen as my character, so that I maintain this sort of stern “Castle Daddy” thing.
But there’s been moments when I lost it, or, you know, I’ve gasped at something that’s happened, and then laughing. I’ve noticed that in the course of the series we’ve done, they’ve let me laugh. You see me laughing more, you know. I’m losing it sometimes, on the missions, especially. I’m just losing it.
All three seasons of The Traitors are currently available to stream on Peacock.
Thumbnail image by Euan Cherry/Peacock (2025)
