![\"\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/09\/2026-03-27-15-faithful-or-fraud-1.jpg\")
Mystery, deceit and Rob Rausch: all cornerstones of this year\u2019s game of \u201cThe Traitors,\u201d a reality TV show that has taken over the public sphere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe Traitors\u201d is a competitive mix of strategy and deceit, drawing a close comparison to games like Mafia and Among Us. The catch? All contestants are well-known reality TV stars. The rules are simple. Contestants live together in a castle where the group is separated into \u201cFaithfuls\u201d and a few carefully, secretly chosen \u201cTraitors.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Faithfuls\u2019 job? Complete challenges that steadily add to their final prize pot, a reward they will ultimately split. And the Traitors\u2019 mission? Murder the Faithfuls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Every night the group meets up to banish prospective Traitors, culminating in betrayals, alliances and sweet, sweet drama.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This year\u2019s season generated a significant amount of buzz \u2014 largely credited to the popularity of \u201cLove Island\u201d star Rob Rausch. Other stars included Lisa Rinna (\u201cThe Real Housewives of Beverly Hills\u201d), Maura Higgins (\u201cLove Island UK\u201d) and host Allan Cumming. Stop now before the spoilers start!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The show started off strong with Candiace Dillard Bassett, Lisa Rinna, Rob Rausch and Donna Kelce being chosen as the original Traitors. By episode six, three of the Traitors remained, having killed or banished eight of their counterparts. Not a bad statistic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rausch\u2019s first big controversy was quickly queued as he redirected the group\u2019s suspicion towards fellow Traitor Lisa Rinna \u2014 a move that showed the audience his competitiveness despite his misleading charm. The following episode concluded with Basset\u2019s elimination, leaving Rausch all alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, the Faithfuls\u2019 relief was short-lived as Eric Nam was recruited to join Rausch\u2019s ranks. The final three dwindled down to Rausch, Nam and Higgins (Higgins being the last standing Faithful). Rausch, in another shocking betrayal, voted to banish Nam. Nam, returning the gesture, voted to banish Rausch. It all came down to Higgins. Rausch, leveraging his close friendship, attempted to convince her to eliminate his own fellow Traitor. And oh, she did. Higgins, assuming they had won, celebrated until Rausch revealed the truth. He had been a Traitor the whole time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And with that, Rausch betrayed the three people closest to him and took home the entire prize pot: a whopping $220,800.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe Traitors\u201d isn\u2019t just a reality TV show but a commentary on America\u2019s fascination with the line between honesty and manipulation. Old shows to new shows alike, ranging from \u201cSurvivor\u201d to \u201cAge of Attraction\u201d have demonstrated that popularity. Season four was truly one for the books.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The mind games of \u2018The Traitors\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":797,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[220],"tags":[96,21,52],"class_list":["post-1416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movies-tv","tag-christa-bashinski","tag-entertainment","tag-issue-2026-03-27"],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/09\/2026-03-27-15-faithful-or-fraud-1.jpg",1017,602,false],"thumbnail":["\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/09\/2026-03-27-15-faithful-or-fraud-1.jpg",150,89,false],"medium":["\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/09\/2026-03-27-15-faithful-or-fraud-1.jpg",300,178,false],"medium_large":["\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/09\/2026-03-27-15-faithful-or-fraud-1.jpg",768,455,false],"large":["\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/09\/2026-03-27-15-faithful-or-fraud-1.jpg",1017,602,false],"1536x1536":["\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/09\/2026-03-27-15-faithful-or-fraud-1.jpg",1017,602,false],"2048x2048":["\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/09\/2026-03-27-15-faithful-or-fraud-1.jpg",1017,602,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Ian Schartner","author_link":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/author\/schartnerij23\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"The mind games of \u2018The Traitors\u2019","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1416"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1416\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1671,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1416\/revisions\/1671"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}