2025: The Traitor-ization of Reality TV

When I was on Survivor: All Stars back in 2003, it was a totally new concept: Survivor was bringing its players back to compete again. The entire thing was revolutionary, and it changed the way reality TV works. Fast forward 21 years of my life later and returnee seasons on Survivor, and on other shows are the subject of constant speculation, fan-casts, and something I am guilty of, BrantSteele simulations.

We’re in a season of change in 2025 again, and that is what I’ll call the Traitor-ization of television. Until the last couple of years, The Challenge was the only show that had a lot of crossover with other shows and especially other networks. Now, after the success of the America version of The Traitors, we are living in the reality TV multiverse. Like in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, different shows have their stars, or their pseudo-solo vehicles, that then come together to create major crossover events and totally new shows.

Season one of The Traitors brought us a Cirie victory, something reality television fans had been clamoring for for years, even if they originally dreamed of seeing it on a different show. She did it in cutthroat fashion, but more importantly, did it in a cast of Survivor, Big Brother, Housewives, Bachelor, and alumni from shows across ABC, CBS, NBC, Bravo, and more. Season one ended up winning the Emmy for Outstanding Casting for a Reality Program. A message was sent to the industry: the biggest reality stars were bigger than any one show and casting directors had to pay attention.

Traitors took its own message to heart and doubled down for season two by eliminating any civilians from the cast. It went from a half-and-half Fans v Favorites style to a full on all-star format. Season two then won the Emmy for Outstanding Reality Competition Program so it’s no wonder that the show is keeping the same casting format for season three, premiering this Thursday, and beyond.

But it’s not just about Traitors. Some shows have heard this message and others are holding out. Deal or No Deal Island (DONDI) season two is about to start with Dr. Will’s return to competing on reality TV, Parvati’s post-Traitors renaissance, and introducing Survivor Australia’s “golden god” and superstar, David Genat, to American audiences. The Food Network’s next season of Worst Cooks in America has Cheryl Burke, Rachel Reilly, Tiffany Pollard, and more. Last year, Amazon Prime aired The Goat with players from Survivor, The Bachelor, The Real World, and others. Speaking of Survivor AU, its upcoming Australia v The World has already confirmed some of the biggest US Survivor players along with its own stars. Network lines have been crossed, and now we’re crossing the international date line too.

Alan Cumming’s lauded gig as the host of Traitors may have had some influence as well. Joe Manganiello hosts the stars on DONDI, Manu Bennett headlined The Summit, and Jeffrey Dean Morgan has been announced as the host of NBC’s upcoming Destination X (with rumored reality stars as part of its cast, of course). USA’s The Anonymous premiered with a mixed group of a Big Brother winner, a two-time Survivor AU alum, and even blurred the lines with one of the “stars” of the Fyre Festival documentary.

E!’s House of Villains (hosted by Joel McHale, another actor/host with a busy resume) is two seasons deep. Hulu’s Got to Get Out reportedly has another full Traitor-ized cast for its premiere, sometime in 2025. Big Brother had Cirie on as a twist last year, although Survivor seems to be resisting the temptation to do any kind of international or cross-network casting for now.

So what does this all mean?

Well, it’s complicated and what it means changes for the different stakeholders. For one, competitive reality TV fans have a TON of shows to choose from. The quality can rise to the top or fans can follow their favorite personalities across networks and countries to see what they get up to. Josh Martinez crossed into Spanish language programming with Telemundo’s Los 50 this year and he may have brought Big Brother or The Challenge fans with him.

For the shows themselves, casting is only going to get more competitive as the best personalities have more demand than ever before. The Challenge has lost its monopoly on casting from other networks. The networks also seem to trust that celebrities like Manganiello, Morgan, Bennett, and McHale, can provide the familiarity to launch successful new shows. In the case of Manganiello and McHale, this has proven to be true; we’ll have to see what happens for Destination X and a possible Summit renewal. Networks will either have to catch up to The Traitors style or rely on the formulae that have worked for them in the past. Hosts aren’t the only ones who need to have audience familiarity because reality stars with credibility are more valuable than ever now.

For the best reality stars, it means more leverage in appearance fees and contract negotiations (including reducing times on things like network exclusivity), while the less-popular ones might just have to show for nothing and give more power to the networks. With so many shows, reality TV casts will have tons of folks waiting in the wings. It also means that a Boston Rob or Johnny Bananas type career on reality TV is more accessible to some of these folks as the abundance of shows keeps growing.

But what about for new casts? We’ll always be seeing new reality stars on these shows and we might see more folks than ever playing for their next show, which often makes for weaker gameplay. Since, I’ve talked about Traitors being a sort of reality TV multiverse, similar to the Avengers and the MCU, I wonder if at some point we’ll get tired of seeing the biggest stars over and over, the same way audiences seem to have tired with Marvel. In that case, we might be in for another renaissance of new shows with new casts taking over.

Whatever happens, 2025 is going to be a really fun year of reality television, and with so much competition in competition reality, my hope is that the best, most interesting shows rise to the top. And if all of this leads to more international crossovers of Survivor, Big Brother, and shows that haven’t even premiered yet, I’m not complaining.

What shows are you most looking forward to this year?

-Rob Cesternino

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