Survivor alum Stephenie LaGrossa Kendrick spilled major tea about The Traitors in her EXCLUSIVE interview with HollywoodLife about the Peacock show. Stephenie revealed that the Bravo contestants — which includes Brandi Glanville from The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, Kyle Cooke from Summer House, Kate Chastain from Below Deck, and Reza Farahan from Shahs of Sunset — caused major drama at the Scottish Highlands castle where they filmed the strategy-heavy series.
“The Bravo people bring the most drama. They are just made for drama TV. They’re hilarious,” Stephenie, 43, told us. “At times some can be very frustrating,” she added. “I’m not gonna name names. But they’re gonna make some really good TV.”
Stephenie’s comments echo what host Alan Cumming, 57, said when we interviewed him about the show. Alan described Kate, 40, as a “diva,” though he praised the Below Deck alum for how much she brought to the show.
“She would say things like, ‘I’m dying to be killed, or to be banished, but I won’t get my money if I leave.’ Things like that,” Alan explained. “I loved that about her. I loved how honest she was,” he added.
Premiering January 12, The Traitors features 20 contestants — 10 reality stars and 10 everyday people — who are randomly chosen as either Traitors or Faithfuls on the first episodes. The three Traitors secretly “kill” the Faithfuls, one by one, while the Faithfuls have to expose the Traitors or they lose the $250,000 grand prize.
Stephenie told HollywoodLife that being a three-time Survivor player still couldn’t prepare her for the amount of manipulation and deceit that goes down on The Traitors.
“Nothing really can prepare you for this. You’re given a role from the very first episode. You’re either a Faithful or a Traitor. And that makes it very hard to form alliances, which is everything Survivor is built on,” Stephenie explained. “It’s totally different.”
While Stephenie couldn’t reveal if she’s a Traitor or a Faithful before the show airs, she did explain some mistakes that the Faithfuls make when they’re trying to suss out the Traitors.
“Just probably letting your personal feelings in the game. Thinking you could trust people along the way,” she said. “And from a civilian standpoint, some of them were fans of ours. And that played a role. They were afraid to go against if one of the celebrities was a Traitor. Because they liked them so much. They were such a big fan of them.”
Stephenie continued, “Once your emotions get involved, it screws up what you’re really there for. You’re there to play a game and trust nobody. So that can be tough.” All 10 episodes of The Traitors drop Thursday, January 12 on Peacock.