How Peacock's Traitors Murdered the Streaming Charts in Season 2

There's been a murder, but this time the victim is streaming ratings. Peacock's The Traitors—an Alan Cumming-hosted competition series where reality stars called "faithfuls" try to banish the "traitors" among them before being murdered themselves—was already a hit in Season 1, even winning the Emmy Award for Outstanding Casting for a Reality Program. But in Season 2, the show killed it. The latest installment of the series, based on the Dutch show De Verraders, has blown away the previous numbers. The Season 2 debut was up more than 75% from Season 1 when it dropped on Jan. 12. During its first full week of availability on Peacock, Season 2 of The Traitors ranked ninth for overall minutes viewed of an original series. And, thanks to weekly gains, the show has become Peacock’s most-watched unscripted original of all time. Ahead of the March 7 finale, and as part of ADWEEK's TCA coverage, we spoke with executive producer Toni Ireland to learn the secrets to Season 2's success. Peacock Focusing on Retention Following Record-Breaking NFL Streaming Ratings Shifting to a weekly schedule Season 1 of The Traitors went the binge-watching route, dropping all its episodes at once. And though the series was still successful, Season 2's shift to a weekly format (after dropping three episodes for the premiere) has led to week-over-week viewership gains and the series becoming a regular trending topic on Thursdays when new episodes dropped. "The network has made a really smart decision with that scheduling. It really helps the show," Ireland told ADWEEK. "You can fall into a bit of a trap sometimes with the reality shows of putting too many out in a week. You can't catch up or feel like you're not watching it with your friends, and with this one it seems to be an appointment to view." Ireland noted that audiences for both the U.S. and the U.K. versions of the show, where she's also an executive producer, appreciate the "drip-fed" nature of the series, and keeping the show appointment viewing may be one of the priorities moving forward. "We're happy with a once-a-year format," Ireland said. "Sometimes you can get spoiled when you get carried away making too much, and I think it's that lovely thing, like waiting for Christmas to come around." New twists keep players and viewers on their toes The basic rules of The Traitors are always present: Players compete in missions to add money to a prize pool, meanwhile traitors murder faithfuls while the faithfuls try to banish the traitors. However, Season 2 presented several updates, including making missions and shields, which protect players from being murdered by the traitors, "more meaningful," according to Ireland. "Season 1, you could win a shield within the Armory, and that didn't lead to great story for us. Sometimes it just meant that they keep it quiet and anyone who went into the Armory was protected from murder," Ireland said. "It was a bit of a dead end." Rather than using the Armory, Season 2 placed the shields throughout missions, so it wasn't always clear who actually won a shield in the end. This led to drama throughout the season, including the traitors falling into a trap set by former Bachelor Peter Weber, which tricked the traitors into wasting their murder on a faithful who was protected by a shield. "We've always dreamt of a murder to a shielded player, and, obviously, we don't get involved at all," Ireland said. "And they did [try to murder a shielded player] this time, which is incredible." Keeping the atmosphere murderous behind the scenes Though producers strictly stay out of the way to let the game play out, they do tricks behind the scenes to ramp up the drama. For instance, Ireland confirmed that they play "The Hanging Tree" song from The Hunger Games before roundtable ceremonies, where the faithfuls have a chance to banish the traitors. "That's something again that we learned from the Dutch," Ireland said. "We went over on a trip before we even started making these, to go and see how they did it. And we watched the roundtable, and it was electric." Most episodes are shot in a day, according to Ireland, keeping an overall pressure cooker feeling on set. However, despite this pressure, the series makes having a good relationship with the cast a top priority—which also buys goodwill and helps keep some secrets, like where the cast really sleeps at night, staying secret. "They are in a fantasy world and playing this amazing game in this magical castle in the middle of the Scottish Highlands," Ireland said. "There are elements of it you want to protect because it could ruin future series, and no one wants to do that." Continuing to make casting a priority Season 1's cast mixed reality stars with regular people, but Season 2 focused on TV celebs and well-known personalities, including Real Housewives star Phaedra Parks, former Bachelor Peter Weber, Chris "C.T." Tamburello from The Challenge and even former U.K. Parliamentarian John Bercow. For Ireland, whether they're celebrities or not, having a cast from different walks of life is essential, as is "warmth and comedy." "What we've loved about this year is having such a diverse, mixed cast, and I think that's where we have to go down that route again," Ireland said. "The Housewives have been brilliant for us this time. Would we love some [Vanderpump Rules]? I'm sure we would." According to Ireland, the diversity of the cast members drastically affected the show, even helping Phaedra as she tried to hide her status as a traitor. "People didn't believe she was a traitor because her makeup was so perfect," Ireland said. "They didn't think she could have been in that tower all night murdering and get up that early to put things on because she looked so good." Actually listening to fans When it comes to fan reactions to the cliffhangers or major moments, producers are tuning in, with Ireland saying, "We do watch people's reaction online." "As producers, you've got to keep your blinders on slightly and not get distracted by every comment that's online," Ireland said. "But the general tone of, 'We're finding this really funny,' or, 'Oh my god, that was dramatic!' obviously really helps. Knowing that people really like a twist just helps us." Stream The Traitors Season 2 finale on Peacock on Thursday, March 7 at 9 p.m. ET.