A 'Traitors' Manual: A Guide to Every Season of TV's Best Reality Show

While I realize many (most?) Anglophiles may view themselves as fans of serious prestige television first and foremost — and it's true, we are! However, viewing ourselves as somehow above pedestrian entertainment such as "reality television" is a mistake. Many American reality staples are based on series that originated across the pond. British television has some of the widest variety of programming in this particular genre, ranging from charming and wholesome (The Great British Baking Show, The Repair Shop) to the ridiculously trashy (Made in Chelsea, Geordie Shore) and downright bizarre (Flinch, Age Gap Love).

But no matter how you feel about reality television as a concept, it's hard to ignore the success of a little series called The Traitors. It's a genuine global phenomenon, and with good reason: It's great.

The franchise started with the Dutch reality series De Verraders and became so popular that it spawned a small cottage industry. There are currently more than 20 international versions of The Traitors, with more on the way. It doesn't hurt that the series format is shockingly easy to replicate: Like the party game Mafia, all you need is a group of people, a centralized location, and a willingness to sit back and watch human nature work as their contestants lie to, mislead, and betray one another in the name of money and self-preservation.