Ever since The Traitors premiered, it has featured iconic players from other reality shows like Survivor and Big Brother. That has made Big Brother fans very excited, since players from some of that show’s best seasons have entered Alan Cummings’ castle. For example, years after she escaped Big Brother and got drunk, Danielle Reyes competed in The Traitors. Similarly, some of the best players ever who appeared on Jeff Probst’s show have gone on The Traitors, including some of the best winners.

Since some Big Brother and Survivor stars have been among The Traitors’ most memorable players, fans have come up with theories. One example of that is the theory about why Big Brother players have flopped on The Traitors, but Survivor stars have succeeded.

Why Survivor Players Are Doing Better On The Traitors Than Big Brother Houseguests

Throughout The Traitors’ first three seasons, the show has taken advantage of the fact that there are many people that reality show fans care about. The show has done that by mostly casting people who previously starred in other reality shows.

As a result of the people who’ve been chosen to appear on The Traitors, fans have been able to notice trends in Alan Cumming’s castle. For example, fans have noticed that Real Housewives stars have held their own in a game against people from other reality competition shows.

The Traitors fans have also noticed that former Survivor players have done well in the game and that former Big Brother houseguests have flopped. With that in mind, it is fascinating to look at why Survivor players have been beating Big Brother houseguests on The Traitors.

As a March 2024 post on the r/TheTraitors subreddit shows, the most common theory about why Survivor players are outplaying Big Brother veterans is because of the schedule.

In January 2025, Yahoo! Entertainment published an article about what it is like to compete during a season of The Traitors. According to that article, it only takes “a few weeks” for a season of The Traitors to be filmed. That fact is important when comparing why Survivor players are finding more success than Big Brother veterans in Alan Cumming’s game.

Up until the 40th season, each early season of Survivor lasted 39 days. During Survivor’s so-called “new era,” from season 41 onward, the newest seasons of Survivor take 26 days to film. While both of those time spans are longer than “a few weeks,” the difference between how long it takes to film Survivor and The Traitors isn’t that dramatic.

On the other hand, typical seasons of Big Brother take much, much longer to film than The Traitors does. In fact, the longest Big Brother season ever lasted a staggering 100 days. That means that Big Brother players have a lot more time to enact their strategy in that game.

It seems very likely that the significantly faster pace of The Traitors is harder for Big Brother players to adapt to.

The idea that Big Brother players have struggled with the pace of the game isn’t just conjecture either. Instead, when Dan Gheesling was voted out, his exit interviews pointed to the fact that he didn’t handle the speed of The Traitors well.

In February 2024, Dan spoke to Variety about his The Traitors experience. During that conversation, Dan spoke about how he succeeded during Big Brother because he would make mistakes and then overcome them.

Unfortunately for Dan, he went on to tell Variety that during The Traitors, the game moved too quickly for him to fix his mistakes.

On the other hand, Cirie Fields proved that after playing Survivor, she had no problem adapting to the pace of the game during The Traitors.

Sandra Diaz-Twine was also very successful during The Traitors’ second season.

How Much Better Have Survivor Players Performed On The Traitors Than Big Brother Veterans

During the first two seasons of The Traitors, every Survivor veteran was more successful than their Big Brother counterpart. In fact, Survivor players had a significantly better track record than Big Brother veterans during The Traitors’ first two seasons.

During the first season of The Traitors, Cody Calafiore and Rachel Reilly were banished during the sixth and eight episodes respectively.

Survivor’s Stephenie LaGrossa Kendrick was the last person who was “murdered” and Cirie Fields was the first season’s sole winner.

Janelle Pierzina was “murdered” during Episode 5 and Dan Gheesling was banished during the episode six of The Traitors Season 2. Parvati Shallow and Sandra Diaz-Twine were banished during Episode 8 and Episode 11 of the second season.

As of the time of this writing, there are still two Survivor and Big Brother players left during The Traitors Season 3. As a result, there is no way to know yet whether a Survivor or Big Brother veteran will have the most success during The Traitors Season 3. What is clear, however, is that Tony Vlachos and Jeremy Collins both left the game during the third season’s 3rd and 4th episodes.

While Tony and Jeremy’s early exits were very disappointing, there is still no doubt that Survivor players have had more success than Big Brother veterans.

The Traitors (US)

Release Date

January 12, 2023

Showrunner

Stephen Lambert

Writers

Lee Grant, Christine Rose

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