PARTING SHOT: Alan Cumming

AFTER THE MASSIVE SUCCESS OF THE TRAITORS LAST YEAR (STREAMING now on Peacock), host Alan Cumming knew this third season had to be bigger. “There was a pressure to not just repeat ourselves, it actually upped the ante.” And they did just that, with a more explosive cast and even wilder twists. “It is bigger. I’m sort of a cult leader. I’ve gone from just a dandy lord of the manor in his castle to official cult leader. I’m fine with it.” Cumming hosts a castle full of reality TV stars who all play a game of murder in the hope of winning upward of $250,000. But Cumming says their TV background has little to do with their success on The Traitors. “Everybody has this sort of myth that you have to be in one of those gamer shows to do well at this game, and it’s not true. Sometimes it’s actually good to have better social skills.” Last year, Cumming’s Emmy win ended RuPaul’s historic 8-year winning streak for RuPaul’s Drag Race. “I saw Ru and I went up to him and I just went, ‘I am so sorry.’ And he just went, ‘Con-drag-ulations.’ And I was like, ‘He said it!’” [laughs]

- H. Alan Scott

How do you feel about how big the show has become? Well, what can you do? It’s great! I really feel it’s one of these really affirming things in life, actually. I did this random thing that just sounded fun. I went with my gut. It’s kind of become sort of a zeitgeisty water cooler sort of thing. And also, more importantly, I really like it.