‘The Traitors’: How Does Alan Cumming Choose the Traitors & Is it Completely His Decision?

One of the most anticipated moments of The Traitors is when the show’s host circles the roundtable and makes the big decision of which players will be that season’s traitors, leaving the rest of the cast members as faithfuls.

Alan Cumming‘s campy spin on the edge-of-your-seat moment has made traitor selection a buzzed-about part of the show. But how does he decide who he’s going to tap on the shoulder? When is the decision made? And is he coming up with the traitor selection all by himself? Scroll down for everything we know about the process.

How are traitors chosen on The Traitors?

At the beginning of every season, Cumming sits down with all of the cast members for one-on-one interviews. They’re all asked the important question of whether they want to be a traitor or a faithful. Those who have no interest in taking on the deceptive role of being a traitor are likely off the table. The host then gets together with producers to decide whoa should be chosen.

And although Cumming is the one to physically tap the chosen traitors on the shoulder, he wears an earpiece so production can weigh in throughout the process, which he’s admitted is quite stressful. “I’m just so happy when it’s over,” he told Today.com.

Euan Cherry/Peacock

Claudia Winkleman, who hosts the U.K. version of the show, gave a bit more insight into the decision-making process. “There’s a group of us, including the brilliant producers and casting team,” she told Radio Times. “We go into a room and don’t leave until their chosen. If someone asks not to be a traitor, they wouldn’t be picked.”

How long does it take to choose the traitors?

The cast is blindfolded at the first roundtable for “like 40 minutes or something,” Cumming revealed to Entertainment Weekly. “And I go around, around around. First of all, we film them all. I touched them all on camera, so we’ve got it clean for everybody to have been touched, just in case. And then I start, you know, stopping.”

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And, yes, Cumming purposely tries to throw the contestants off when he’s making his way around the table. “We do it on purpose,” he confirmed. “You see me doing stuff that you didn’t before, doing the clever checks of just [ruffling my sleeve fabric] and stopping ever so slightly and pausing and squeaks on the floor and stuff. You know, when you’re blindfolded, your hearing becomes much more diligent and refined, and so everyone’s listening so intently, and so I have to be even more naughty and like an old trickster than ever.”

The Traitors, Thursdays, 9/8c, Peacock