The Traitors: New Blood is coming soon. Before the new season kicks off, here is a look back at the best traitors in the show’s history. Eighteen traitors have played across four seasons of The Traitors. Here are my rankings of all 18 traitors.
Ranking The Best Traitors from ‘The Traitors’
Elite Tier
The two best traitors in the history of the show belong in their own tier.
1. Rob Rausch (Season 4)
Rob Rausch played the best game of any traitor in the history of the show in the most recent season. He was a ruthless killer and controlled the turret brilliantly. He had fellow traitors try to take him out, and he managed to come out on top and avoid the suspicion that they cast on him. Rausch made all of the right moves to get down to the final vote with the people that trusted him the most in the game. He managed to cut out his final fellow traitor as well, taking the entire prize for himself.
2. Cirie Fields (Season 1)
Cirie Fields is one of the greatest ever Survivor players, known for her masterful ability to form relationships and get people to trust her. That is why this was the perfect game for her. Fields laid the path for how a traitor should play in this game. She definitely had the advantage of playing against some civilians who were unfamiliar with how to play a game like this and went with her because they were fans of hers. However, Fields basically ran this game from start to finish and was a more than worthy winner.
Great Tier
These were all very good players, but as they did not win the show, they can’t be ranked on that elite tier.
3. Phaedra Parks (Season 2)
Phaedra Parks was the first traitor to show that the Bravo crew could be ruthless traitors, not just the former competition show players. Parks ended up being banished in the penultimate episode, but her savvy gameplay and iconic lines made her a fantastic traitor.
4. “Boston” Rob Mariano (Season 3)
Boston Rob is one of the most iconic reality competition show players in history. That ended up being a double-edged sword for him in the castle. It did put a huge target on his back, and he constantly had to battle to convince people he was a faithful (even though he was not). However, it gave him an advantage in the sense that there were some players who idolized him and wanted to work with him no matter what. Mariano won his battle against Bob the Drag Queen and showed how great of a manipulator he could be. However, the target on him was too big for the faithful to ignore once numbers started to dwindle.
5. Parvati Shallow (Season 2)
Parvati Shallow is one of the best Survivor players of all time. However, just like with Boston Rob, that meant she had a massive target on her back. Shallow did a great job for a time and pulled off one of the iconic kills in the show’s history, murdering Ekin-Su in plain sight. However, Shallow was eventually too big of a target to be ignored by the faithfuls.
Icon Tier
These two might not have been the best traitors, but had so many iconic moments that they deserved to be ranked up here.
6. Kate Chastain (Season 2)
Kate Chastain was on the show in Season 1 and had a great character arc. She started as somebody who didn’t get the game, but became a great faithful by the end of the season. Chastain was invited back for Season 2 and was recruited to be a traitor. She made it all the way to the finale, but was voted out at the very end.
7. Lisa Rinna (Season 4)
Lisa Rinna burned bright and fast as a traitor in Season 4. She had some great one-liners and iconic moments, mainly the banquet dinner where she murdered Yam Yam in plain sight. However, that iconic kill also put Rinna on the chopping block because of Yam Yam’s dramatic announcement that he thought Lisa had killed him.
Season 3 Tier
Season 3 was a bit of a disaster when it came to the traitors. It’s hard to separate the game of any of the traitors outside of Boston Rob.
8. Britney Haynes (Season 3)
Britney Haynes was a late addition to the turret in Season 3. She didn’t really get a chance to screw up, which is maybe why she is at the top of this tier. She was a solid faithful on the show and, once recruited to be a traitor, did a decent job. She ended up being the final traitor left on this season.
9. Bob the Drag Queen (Season 3)
Bob the Drag Queen is a fascinating case study. He had some incredible moments on the show and was a wildly entertaining character. However, going to battle with Boston Rob ended up being an awful choice. It got him eliminated, but also disrupted the traitors long-term because Boston Rob was never able to shake that suspicion off him.
10. Danielle Reyes (Season 3)
Danielle Reyes was a very hectic player. She was constantly paranoid and thought her fellow traitors were out to get her. She created a culture of distrust throughout her time in the turret, which led to those traitors cannibalizing each other. Reyes lasted the longest of the original traitors in this season, but takes a lot of the responsibility for the traitors losing this season.
11. Carolyn Wiger (Season 3)
Carolyn Wiger really struggled as a traitor. She played the worst of both worlds in many ways, refusing to make any strong moves but also drawing suspicion on herself. When Bob the Drag Queen and Danielle Reyes and Boston Rob were feuding, she couldn’t quite decide which side to pick and ended up costing her team.
Just Didn’t Quite Get It Tier
These were traitors who wanted to play the game hard and had some good moments, but didn’t quite get how to play this role.
12. Christian de la Torre (Season 1)
The first season of The Traitors is the only one of the first four that had civilians on it. Christian de la Torre was the only civilian selected to be a traitor that season. That makes him the only non-celebrity to ever set foot in the turret, an honor that will end with this new all-civilian season. He was able to cruise through his role for a while, but ended up blowing up his game when he decided to overthink and pretend to be a civilian that the traitors had tried to recruit.
13. Candiace Dillard Bassett (Season 4)
Candiace Dillard Bassett started strong as a traitor and had some great moments during her season. However, her game imploded so hard that it’s hard to rank her any higher on this list. She, maybe correctly, maybe incorrectly, decided that she would not be able to work with Rob Rausch. She started to float his name out, and at that point her game was done. After the fact, she tried to blame Rausch for blowing up the traitors crew, but it was really her that couldn’t handle not running the game.
14. Cody Calafiore (Season 1)
Cody Calafiore was a two-time finalist on Big Brother, but failed to make it very far on The Traitors. Cirie Fields was running the turret that season, and she decided Calafiore had to go, so he went.
15. Dan Gheesling (Season 2)
Dan Gheesling is a Big Brother legend, but his game did not translate to The Traitors at all. He picked a fight with his fellow traitors and was not prepared to defend himself in front of the faithfuls.
Not a Real Traitor Tier
These were three traitors who were just completely lost in their role.
16. Donna Kelce (Season 4)
Donna Kelce was made the first-ever “secret traitor” in the history of the show. For the first time, both her fellow traitors and the faithfuls didn’t know that she was a traitor. However, the matriarch of the Kelce family did not do her job well at all and was quickly voted out. The show must have been disappointed with how poorly Kelce played, as there was no real time to explore the idea of a secret traitor.
17. Eric Nam (Season 4)
Eric Nam was put in a tough position, but did nothing to rank higher on this list. Nam was recruited very late in the game by Rob Rausch to carry along to the final and sacrifice when the time was right. He never really had time to grow into his role as a traitor, but he was used like a puppet by Rausch and then sacrificed at the end when he could have won alongside him.
18. Arie Luyendyk Jr. (Season 1)
Arie Luyendyk Jr. gets a DNF for his performance as a traitor, which is why he ranks last on this list. Luyendyk was recruited to be a traitor late in the game. He hung in for a little while, but couldn’t get himself to lie to the faithful’s faces down the stretch. Luyendyk decided to confess that he was a traitor when he would have had a great chance to win alongside Cirie Fields.
