Alan Cumming and "The Traitors" Break a Six-Year Emmys Record

“The Traitors” walked away from the 78th Emmy Awards with a perfect record, winning all seven categories it was nominated in and claiming its third consecutive trophy for Outstanding Reality Competition Program. The Peacock murder-mystery series beat “Dancing with the Stars,” “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” “Survivor” and “Top Chef” for the top honor, extending a run that has seen it win the category every season since its 2023 debut.

Host Alan Cumming accepted the award on the show’s behalf, joking that he was speaking for producers who were racing toward the stage the same way contestants scramble during the show’s elimination challenges. He thanked the Television Academy for its support at the Creative Arts Emmys the week before, saying the recognition pushed the production to raise its ambitions for future seasons.

He also turned his attention to the audience, calling it unusually diverse and praising how strangers gather to watch a show built around deception and turning against each other. Cumming closed by urging viewers to vote in the upcoming midterm elections.

Monday’s sweep pushed “The Traitors” past a six-year-old record. “RuPaul’s Drag Race” had set the previous mark for single-season wins by a competition series when it took six trophies in 2020; “The Traitors” now holds seven, following six additional wins at the Creative Arts ceremony that covered categories including production design, cinematography, picture editing and costumes.

The show’s total haul across its run stands at fifteen Emmys from seventeen nominations. Cumming’s win for Outstanding Host for a Reality or Reality Competition Program, secured the prior weekend, marked his third straight victory in that category as well, over competitors including RuPaul, Kristen Kish and Jeff Probst.

Adapted from the Dutch format “De Verraders,” “The Traitors” splits contestants into two groups, Faithful and Traitors, with the latter eliminating members of the former while working to avoid detection.

The format’s dominance at this year’s ceremony arrives just before its next expansion: “The Traitors: New Blood,” an all-civilian spinoff replacing the flagship show’s mix of celebrities and reality veterans with twenty-two newcomers competing for a prize of up to two hundred fifty thousand dollars, premieres on NBC later this week.