The Traitors: New Blood Review: Civilians Bring the Castle to Life

“I’d feel like shit picking Kim,” Madeline Kostopulos says while discussing the castle’s first murder. Kriste Lewis takes that ordinary expression of sympathy to the roundtable as “I feel bad picking Kim.” A conditional thought has lost its condition, and suddenly Madeline is defending herself against something she never said. The first two episodes of The Traitors: New Blood understand how much television can fit inside that tiny change of wording. The audience heard the original. The players have a vote.

Victor Vollbrechthausen has a different problem. He takes an immunity shield at the first opportunity, then finds himself explaining why he wanted protection in a game where people are ceremonially murdered. His sweating during the Traitor selection also draws suspicion, producing the magnificently unhelpful defense, “I’M A SWEATY BOOOOY!” His best case is that he sweats and prefers to stay in the competition. By the time the group gets to the roundtable, both facts require counsel.

The American franchise’s first all-civilian spinoff brings 22 contestants to Alan Cumming’s Scottish castle. He chooses secret Traitors, who eliminate Faithfuls at night; the group tries to banish those Traitors through discussion and a vote. Recent seasons filled those seats with reality veterans and celebrities whose reputations often arrived ahead of them.

Here, most introductions have to happen on screen, and the game starts working on them almost immediately. On the train to the castle, Joe Vanella compares the trip to Hogwarts with murder. He is already giving the editors plenty to work with before Cumming names him a Traitor.

Kim Daily makes an even stronger first impression by claiming to be a college basketball coach instead of a lawyer. She knows how quickly a profession associated with argument can become a reason for suspicion. Michael Foote, also a lawyer, has a public profile that makes the same disguise difficult.

Their contrasting introductions give this cast an early tactical wrinkle: players can choose what to reveal, but they have little control over what everyone else decides it means. Kim’s plan never reaches the roundtable as an accusation. Joe and fellow Traitor Tomica Adams identify her as too smart to leave in the game and make her their first victim.

Cumming still presides over all this in spectacular clothes, emerging from jade smoke to welcome the contestants. His theatricality gives the newcomers a wonderfully excessive setting to react to, and their reactions help keep the ceremony lively.

He also announces that each successful banishment of a Traitor will add $15,000 to a prize pot that can reach $250,000. Several players talk about the money as something that could change their lives. The added reward gives the Faithfuls a reason to pursue a vote with confidence, even though confidence is the one resource the roundtable manufactures far too easily.

The first mission supplies the usual large-scale production: a wrecked ship, water, fire and money to recover. Its lasting contribution to the episode is much smaller. Three shields are available, and Victor goes for one as soon as he can. Abby Lee and Madeline claim the other two after spending longer on the group task. Soon everyone has an opinion about the proper moment to save oneself. The challenge has furnished the roundtable with a suspect before anyone has found a Traitor.

That handoff is where the spinoff’s brisker episode structure earns its keep. The opening pair spends less time on missions and gives breakfast conversations and accusations room to develop. Kim’s absence at breakfast leads quickly to Madeline’s remark, Kriste’s interpretation and the vote. Victor’s conspicuous shield grab runs alongside that misunderstanding, so the table can move between two thin theories without running out of energy. The result is funny in the peculiar way this format often is: we can see exactly how little the players know, and we still want to hear the next argument.

Kriste’s altered account finally tips the vote toward Madeline. Her exit is blunt. She says she is a Faithful and calls Kriste a liar. The scene lands because there is no delayed reveal for viewers to enjoy at the contestants’ expense. We have watched the error form, heard it repeated and seen it gain authority in public. These players may be less practiced at reality television, but they are already fluent in the roundtable’s most dangerous habit: treating a confident retelling as evidence.

The show occasionally presses harder than the people need it to. Sending a coffin-bound victim downriver to “Cry Me a River” gives the first murder an elaborate musical flourish when the choice of victim already carries a surprise. The next twist has a clearer dramatic purpose.

Joe and Tomica select Xavier Scruggs and Katie Fites as accomplices competing for a third place among the Traitors. The first to retrieve a hidden warrant and deliver it to them gets the role; the other faces elimination. The episode cuts away before the result, leaving a useful question about how this anxious new Traitor partnership will work with whoever arrives.

Two episodes are too little to judge that partnership, and several contestants have barely had time to register. What the opening gives us is a cast whose conversations can carry the game between Cumming’s grand entrances. Madeline is gone because a sentence changed on its way to the table. Kriste is still there to hear what people say next.

The Traitors: New Blood premiered on NBC and Peacock on September 17, 2026. Hosted by Alan Cumming at a remote Scottish castle, the reality competition series features an all-civilian cast of twenty-two contestants playing the ultimate game of deception for a cash prize.

Full Credits

• Title: The Traitors: New Blood

• Distributor: NBC, Peacock

• Release date: September 17, 2026

• Rating: TV-PG

• Running time: 60 minutes

• Producers and Executive Producers: Stephen Lambert, Toni Ireland, Sam Fay, Mike Cotton

• Cast: Alan Cumming, Abbey Benjamin, Abby Lee, Arisa Thomas, Ben McDonnell, Clyde Moser, Jay Vinnedge, Joe Vanella