The Traitors Wins Third Emmy as Celebrity Spinoff Set

Alan Cumming took the podium at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles on the night of September 14, 2026, accepting the Emmy for Outstanding Reality Competition Program for Peacock’s The Traitors. The 78th Primetime Emmy Awards telecast was hosted by Mariska Hargitay; earlier that evening Michael J. Fox had received the Bob Hope Humanitarian Award for his Parkinson’s advocacy. Cumming already held his own third consecutive Emmy for Outstanding Host for a Reality or Reality Competition Program.

“I speak on behalf of all our producers who are running to the stage as though they were on a mission of The Traitors: Now they know what it feels like,” he said. He thanked the Academy, the NBCUniversal and Peacock teams that backed the series, his dog Lala for serving as the perfect co-host, and the viewers who kept returning.

“The audience is so amazing, it is so diverse and it's just incredible the way you all get together and watch the show together. That is so beautiful — that a show about treachery and betrayal brings people together,” Cumming told the room. He closed on the votes the show had just collected and the calendar the next day: “Finally, tonight we have received the most votes, but tomorrow is voter registration day in this country, so please make sure you are registered to. Because the time for talk is over, it is now time to vote America!”

The Traitors left none of its nominations unclaimed. Across the Creative Arts ceremonies and the main broadcast, the series won every award it entered: Outstanding Reality Competition Program, Outstanding Host for a Reality or Reality Competition Program, Outstanding Directing for a Reality Program, Outstanding Production Design for a Variety or Reality Series, Outstanding Cinematography for a Reality Program, Outstanding Costumes for Variety, Nonfiction or Reality Programming, and Outstanding Picture Editing for a Structured Reality or Reality Competition Program. The program prize was its third consecutive win in the category, taken over Dancing with the Stars, RuPaul’s Drag Race, Survivor, and Top Chef.

Seven awards in one cycle raised the show’s total to fifteen Emmys from seventeen nominations. No competition program had ever collected more in a single year. RuPaul’s Drag Race had held the mark with six wins in 2020. The season before, The Traitors had already swept all five categories it was nominated in; the Academy simply put two more in reach this time, and the result did not change.

The haul belonged to Season 4.

Rob Rausch, known from Love Island USA, won the Season 4 finale by fooling Maura Higgins. That season’s roster also held Eric Nam, Tara Lipinski, Johnny Weir, Mark Ballas, Lisa Rinna, Donna Kelce, Michael Rapaport, Rob Cesternino, Porsha Williams, and Colton Underwood. The series, drawn from the Dutch format De Verraders, is a social deduction game set at Ardross Castle in the Scottish Highlands. A few players are selected as Traitors and must eliminate the Faithfuls without being exposed; the Faithfuls try to find them. Night brings a murder decided in secret. Day brings missions that grow the prize pot and a round-table vote that banishes one player. Any Traitor left standing at the end claims the fund.

At Deadline’s Contenders Television: The Nominees Studio, Higgins said, “I wish I could sit here and say I knew he was a traitor, but I had no clue. He played the best game in that castle. I genuinely did believe he was a faithful, but you know what? It's a game, and I was fine with it.” Rausch said, “I was actually surprised in the edit. I feel like they made me seem a little more nervous than I was.”

Season 4 reached the largest audience The Traitors had recorded. Viewership surged 72 percent over the prior season. From the January 8, 2026 premiere, the series drew 8.1 billion minutes viewed. Peacock first-party data and Nielsen placed that total second among streaming original reality series in 2026 to date. Only Love Island USA, also on Peacock, ranked higher.

The series had premiered on January 12, 2023. Renewals in the years that followed had already taken it through a planned fifth season. On September 16, 2026, Peacock ordered three additional seasons. Alan Cumming would return as host. Studio Lambert would continue producing. The commitment carried The Traitors through at least eight seasons overall. Season 5 would again gather celebrities and was scheduled for 2027. Every season remained available exclusively on Peacock.

The 8.1 billion minutes stood alone as the measure of reach. Season 5 sat a year out.

The Traitors: New Blood, an all-civilian spinoff, premiered on NBC on September 17, 2026, at 8 p.m. ET/PT. Episodes streamed the next day on Peacock. Where the recent American seasons had featured reality personalities and other celebrities, this cast was drawn entirely from non-celebrities. Alan Cumming hosted.

The British celebrity edition ran on its own schedule, with its own host, at the shared Highlands castle. Celebrity Traitors UK Season 2 was set to premiere on October 1, 2026, on BBC One and iPlayer at 8 p.m., a full week earlier than the previous season and with an extra-long opening episode. The second episode would air the following night at 8 p.m. Twice-weekly airings would carry the rest of the run. Season 1 had filled nine episodes over five weeks. The episode total for Season 2 had not yet been announced. Claudia Winkleman returned as host. Twenty-one celebrities would compete for up to £100,000 for charity. The bar they chased was Alan Carr’s solo-traitor win in Season 1, when he finished as the last Traitor standing and secured the prize money.

October 1 at 8 p.m. on BBC One was next.

Michael Sheen entered the UK Season 2 field. In the trailer for the new season he said, “I am huge fan of this game… now it's my turn.”

The first look at the cast, released ahead of the premiere, sent alarm through YouTube and Reddit. Fans feared he would be an early target for seeming too clever. The same concerns had circulated since the casting was first announced. On Reddit, comments held that clever people tend to be murdered first, that he was guaranteed to be picked as a Traitor by Claudia Winkleman, and that he would be voted out on the first night for looking too obvious. Separate posts asked whether he would dominate as a Traitor or get targeted early for being too smart. On YouTube, viewers said they would protest if he died in the first episode and that they hoped he would win. The tone on both platforms left little expectation he would survive the opening stretch of the season.

The first episode opens at 8 p.m. on October 1 on BBC One. The Highlands castle waits.