The Traitors creator praises British version for global success of reality show
The creator of The Traitors, Marc Pos, has praised the British version of the hit reality show for helping turn his Dutch format into a global phenomenon, hailing production company Studio Lambert for injecting new ideas into the show and the celebrity version.
The creator of The Traitors has praised the British version for making the reality show a global phenomenon.
Marc Pos is the Dutch producer and director who came up with the idea for the programme, which has become a global hit, with the latest celebrity series attracting more than 15 million viewers for its launch episode across seven days.
Pos' creation first aired in the Netherlands on RTL in 2021 and it now airs in more than 40 countries.
When The Traitors is syndicated, the production companies are handed a "Bible" which states what must be kept in the show and outlines Pos' three golden rules: no outside interference with contestants, viewers must see all discussions, and the Traitors' identities must never be kept secret from the audience.
Despite its success, Pos credits British independent production company Studio Lambert with turning The Traitors and The Celebrity Traitors into global hits by injecting new ideas which perfectly suited the show.
Speaking in the new documentary Traitors: The Faithful Story, Pos said: “It was a success in the Netherlands but then there was the amazing Studio Lambert who enhanced it and made it with an incredible professionalism and took this format of ours and turned it into something that is now a worldwide hit.
"What happens if you have the first idea you get all the spotlight. Not to be modest, but that's not how it goes.”
Pos first got his idea for The Traitors in 2015 after he read Mike Dash’s book Batavia's Graveyard, about a mutinous crew of a Dutch East India Company ship in 1629 which resulted in around 150 men, women and children being murdered after the ship hit a coral reef and was stranded.
Pos, who began his career directing episodes of the Dutch version of Big Brother, initially wanted to make a show called The Mutineers which would have followed a group of contestants recreating the fateful voyage.
He said: "I was reading this book about the mutiny of the Batavia. It took me a month to read it or something because you read a few pages and then you're imagining what happened, like a movie, or research more about this story. During this month several thoughts came together, this social media thing came up, this mainstream media thing came up for me, and I was reading this book about a mutiny and I saw this awful human behaviour and it was all about trust. That was the fire-starter, so to speak. This ignited this idea and vision … Human behaviour, what does it look like when people don't trust each other?
“I thought about my time as a director. Maybe I should create a bubble somehow, maybe in a studio or somewhere, but a bubble like Big Brother was and create a reality show out of this. That way I have more freedom to do things or to create my own world.
"Firstly, we had kind of a quest with a roundtable, but it was a quest through Indonesia and Australia and it was called The Mutineers. After the first pitch a broadcaster said to me, 'Maybe you should collaborate with people who create and produce reality.'
“It was challenges and a kind of quest to get from island to island to island to find a treasure. From island to island there was this elimination with a roundtable and when somebody was eliminated they had to jump into the water and swim to an island and the ship would sail off to the next island.”
The final of The Celebrity Traitors airs on BBC One at 8pm on Friday night (30.10.26) following a gripping episode on Thursday (29.10.26) which saw James Acaster out himself as a Traitor.
The 41-year-old comedian became the third Traitor and the eighth player banished at the round table, after he cracked under the pressure of the game.
James outed himself as a Traitor after Michael Sheen pointed the finger at him.
In a post-episode interview, Acaster explained his decision to unmask himself as a Traitor to the Faithfuls, a move which has left the remaining Traitors Maya Jama and King Kenny under suspicion.
Acaster said: "Now we’ve got a proper final on our hands. With three Traitors, it would have been a foregone conclusion that we were going to win.
"Don’t get me wrong, I thought it was hilarious at one point that we were just going to walk our way to the final and win the whole thing, but this is much better, isn’t it?
"The idea of doing that [confessing] got me through the whole experience because you feel as a Traitor sometimes, when you see people have real-life reactions that are bigger than the game, you feel bad.
"I would have to remind myself they don’t have a game without you, literally, if no one’s doing this stuff, they can’t play, and they all want to play.
"So you are doing an important job here, so they all have something to do, and when they catch you, they’ll be really happy and they’ll like it, and it will feel good to just tell them and see that reaction."
Traitors: The Faithful Story, which features Marc Pos' interview, is available on UK digital from Reel2Reel Films now.
