{"id":228661,"date":"2026-01-09T06:54:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T06:54:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/228661\/"},"modified":"2026-01-09T06:54:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T06:54:15","slug":"the-traitors-season-4-power-rankings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/228661\/","title":{"rendered":"The \u2018Traitors\u2019 Season 4 Power Rankings"},"content":{"rendered":"

The best reality competition full of deceit, backstabbing, and preposterous fashion choices is back. After three new episodes, what\u2019s the hierarchy of the castle?<\/p>\n

The best running reality show on TV hath returned: 23 more B- to D-level celebrities are packing into a castle in the Scottish Highlands, where they will be turned against one another, tasked with rooting out the trespassers within, forced to compete in challenges that somehow all evoke being buried alive, and privileged to behold what wild shit host Alan Cumming is rocking the hell out of on any given day. The first three seasons of the American version of The Traitors were art\u2014a stunning spectacle showcasing what happens when you gather a bunch of people who are (in)famous for acting irrationally and ask them to think rationally\u2014but the fourth season has the potential to eclipse them all. The cast is a stunning collection of names you\u2019d never thought would be jammed into the same breath: On top of your usual Real Housewives and Survivor legends, there\u2019s Laguna Beach\u2019s Stephen Colletti, figure skater Tara Lipinski, DONNA KELCE, comedian Ron Funches, the guy from Love Island USA who catches snakes, and overall horrible hang Michael Rapaport. If you thought it was weird to watch Boston Rob and Tom Sandoval having a conversation, just wait until you see Dorinda Medley talk game theory with Taylor Swift\u2019s future mother-in-law.\u00a0<\/p>\n

To commemorate this momentous event\u2014and keep tabs on this absurd cast of characters\u2014each week, we will be evaluating the power dynamics of the Traitors castle, determining who\u2019s running the show, who\u2019s playing the best game, and who\u2019s avoiding the ire of the murder-happy Traitors and, even more importantly, the paranoia-driven Faithfuls. We\u2019ll also be holding ceremonies for the players we lose along the way. Let\u2019s kick it off with a mega-recap of the season\u2019s first three episodes, which were all released on January 8.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In MemoriamIan Terry (Murdered by the Traitors)<\/p>\n

I gotta be honest, if I were setting odds for \u201cfirst sent home,\u201d Ian would\u2019ve been near the bottom of the list. I thought the nervous-little-guy act he was putting on in the Season 4 premiere was really compelling and convincing and that the Traitors would at the very least look past him for the first axing. But when he was one of the contestants to get a casket put in his grave during the first challenge, he ended up on a short list of just nine\u2014a list made up of two gamers (Ian and Rob Cesternino), one Housewife (Dorinda Medley), one reality TV doofus (Rob Rausch from Love Island USA), and five stragglers (Mark Ballas, Michael Rapaport, Eric Nam, Donna Kelce, and Ron Funches). That short list was whittled down to an even shorter list of Ian, Rob R., Mark, and Eric, and since Rob is a Traitor, it was basically a list of three. This group of Traitors\u2014Rob R., Lisa Rinna, and Candiace Dillard Bassett\u2014has immediately made it clear that they\u2019re all about eliminating threats as opposed to sowing pure chaos. All of that considered, it\u2019s no shock that Ian got got.\u00a0<\/p>\n

RIP, little dude\u2014it would\u2019ve been fun to see you pretend not to be smart for longer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Porsha Williams (Banished by the Faithfuls)<\/p>\n

Can someone explain what the fuck happened here? After Ian\u2019s murder, Porsha literally says, in front of multiple people, \u201cI thought it could be Ian, and he\u2019s the one I killed.\u201d And then she also says, in front of a different group of people, \u201cIf we kill a Faithful \u2026\u201d And then after that, she very confidently asserts that there are four Traitors, something she should have zero inkling about. The second slip is more understandable\u2014it seems like she was talking about banishment and just mixed up the terminology\u2014but the other two are a little inexplicable!<\/p>\n

And so it\u2019s not surprising that Ron raises them at the roundtable. It\u2019s even less surprising that that carries a ton of weight and gets Porsha sent home: In a game where shreds of evidence are few and far between and you mostly have to go off your gut (a.k.a. implicate the people you don\u2019t like), any semblance of empirical data is massive. What is surprising is how, after Porsha reveals that she is, in fact, a Faithful, everyone turns on Ron like, \u201cHey, fuck you, you fuckin\u2019 dirty Traitor.\u201d He was just relaying something someone LITERALLY SAID! It\u2019s not his fault that neither he nor anyone else knew that Porsha just be saying shit sometimes!<\/p>\n

Rob Cesternino (Murdered by the Traitors)\"\"All images via Peacock<\/p>\n

Like I was saying, these Traitors\u2014a group composed of reality TV idiots\u2014are (OK, probably smartly) dedicated to eliminating the pure gamers. And Rob C. was clearly the smartest of them all: Through just two episodes, he brought a level of game theory and logical thinking rarely seen in an entire season of The Traitors. When the Traitors were in the process of murdering in plain sight, he legit walked up to one of them and said, \u201cI think the Traitors are going to do a murder in plain sight.\u201d It\u2019s a real bummer that he\u2019s gone because it would\u2019ve been endlessly entertaining to watch a logical thinker try to break through to a group eternally dead set on baseless, impassioned groupthink.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But this is a growing trend on The Traitors: Gamers won the first two seasons but Season 3\u2019s four winning Faithfuls were all more unassuming contestants. And now the gamers are being picked off even earlier in Season 4. I\u2019d be on guard if I were Natalie Anderson, Yamil \u201cYam Yam\u201d Arocho, or Tiffany Mitchell.<\/p>\n

Donna Kelce (Banished by the Faithfuls)<\/p>\n

Obviously, Donna\u2019s gonna need her own section \u2026<\/p>\n

Pour One Out for the Secret Traitor<\/p>\n

This season, The Traitors did something new, electing a \u201cSecret Traitor\u201d whose identity remained a mystery not only to the Faithfuls and the rest of the Traitors but also to the viewers. It was kind of a fun idea that created both Traitor-on-Traitor crime and a mystery box for the audience\u2014the only problem is that the gimmick lasted only two episodes because the Secret Traitor was rooted out and banished by the Faithfuls.<\/p>\n

But shout-out to Donna Kelce for being said Secret Traitor! What a twist, what a reveal, what an exit.<\/p>\n

A few more things on Donna:<\/p>\n

The Faithfuls ended up being right, of course, but it is hilarious that the basis of their suspicion about Donna was that she was relatively more quiet than the rest of the group\u2014a group whose entire job is being incredibly loud in front of the camera. Yeah, obviously the demeanor of a normal 73-year-old lady who\u2019s never been on a reality show is going to seem weird compared with all of you wackos!\u00a0I\u2019m sad to lose Donna so early because it was very fun\u2014and dangerous\u2014to play a drinking game where you took a shot every time someone directly mentioned Travis, Jason, or Taylor SwiftIt kind of feels like Donna had a hard out and that the show contorted itself to get her sent home? The vultures were circling her after she voted with Ron and skirted banishment at the first roundtable. And then in the third episode, Alan moved up the roundtable to before the challenge, thus eliminating crucial hours Donna could\u2019ve spent getting back in the good graces of the paranoid Faithfuls. Instead, the ensuing roundtable vote against her ended up being one of the most lopsided I can remember on this show.\u00a0This should be Taylor Swift\u2019s next album cover:\"\"<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s get to the power rankings \u2026<\/p>\n

The Traitors Power Rankings<\/p>\n

Power, in this context, is a measure of who is controlling the house, who seems furthest away from being banished, and who has the best odds to prevail at the end of the road.\u00a0<\/p>\n

1. Rob Rausch (Love Island USA)<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t believe it, either. This is a guy whose cool-bro I-will-gaslight-you energy is deeply off-putting. This is a guy who, after being confronted by one woman on Love Island because he started dating another woman, responded by bursting into tears, telling the first woman that he really liked her, and then running and hiding underneath a pool deck<\/a>. This is a guy who catches snakes for a living, has a giant snake tattoo on his arm, and refuses to pass up an opportunity to talk about snakes:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

It\u2019d be preposterous to think that this guy would be running the Traitors castle\u2014but he kinda is! He\u2019s been a leader during the challenges, he\u2019s ingratiated himself with the Faithfuls, his quietude has been interpreted as charming rather than creepy, and he\u2019s led the trio of Traitors to ruthlessly murder the cast\u2019s gamers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Eventually, everyone\u2019s gonna turn on him\u2014and I really can\u2019t wait to see how he acts when, much like a snake being hunted, he\u2019s backed into a corner\u2014but that time is not now.<\/p>\n

2. Natalie Anderson (The Amazing Race)<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a Faithful, and I want to play an aggressive Faithful game.\u201d<\/p>\n

I believe it was Yam Yam who correctly noted in the premiere that this game is much easier to win if you\u2019re a Faithful. And of all the Faithfuls, Natalie is the most badass. She\u2019s a beast in challenges, a beast at the roundtable \u2026 the only way she won\u2019t win this thing is if the Traitors get to her.\u00a0<\/p>\n

3. Tiffany Mitchell (Big Brother)<\/p>\n

You gotta like the game Tiffany\u2019s playing. In the first two episodes, she does a flawless job of following the group when there\u2019s a clear consensus while at the same time pulling her own strings in the shadows. In the premiere specifically you barely even notice her, yet she\u2019s making moves.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The strategy of cozying up to Michael Rapaport\u2014by far the most hated housemate thus far, Faithful or Traitor\u2014rather than ostracizing him could be a losing one; at the end of Episode 3, it\u2019s why Colton Underwood begins to suspect her motives (because why TF would anyone willingly befriend Michael Rapaport?). But still, if Tiffany and Colton are going to war, I like Tiffany way more in that fight.<\/p>\n

4. Colton Underwood (The Bachelor)<\/p>\n

For very legitimate reasons<\/a>, I cannot condone this dude But he\u2019s admittedly been a large figure in the cast through three episodes, leading the Faithfuls as they take up their pitchforks based on his whims and driving conversations at the roundtable. It honestly seems like he\u2019s running the playbook of his fellow Bachelor Pilot Pete, who etched his place in Traitors history by playing an aggressive game and setting traps for the bad guys, leading the fight to root out Traitors Dan Gheesling and Parvati Shallow. Colton, similarly, has come in all gas and no brakes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Notably, though, Pilot Pete\u2019s aggressiveness came back to bite him\u2014he was sent home by Faithfuls who were irked by his main character energy one episode before the finale. Colton needs to build a larger coalition than Pete did, lest he face the same fate.<\/p>\n

5. Yam Yam Arocho (Survivor)<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t have much to say about Yam Yam at the moment\u2014I just really like him. It seems very possible that he\u2019ll win Traitors the same way he won Survivor, by charming with his big personality while making shrewd gameplay moves. To that end: If Rapaport is going to make the Faithfuls choose between him and Yam Yam, he\u2019s not gonna like how that ends up.<\/p>\n

6. Lisa Rinna (The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills)<\/p>\n

It is interesting that the show has chosen two Housewives to be Traitors. Rapaport is the worst, but he wasn\u2019t wrong when he suggested that, historically and statistically speaking, one of the five Housewives is likely to be a Traitor. Now, with Porsha already gone, those odds get even higher\u2014and the Faithfuls have a 50\/50 shot of hitting the bull\u2019s-eye should they aim at the queens of Bravo. Lisa is ranked this high at the moment because (1) she has the power to kill people and (2) she\u2019s implicating herself a whole lot less than Candiace.<\/p>\n

A few stray observations about Lisa:<\/p>\n

It is very funny that instead of saying, \u201cI wish I could call my husband,\u201d she says, \u201cI wish I could call Harry Hamlin.\u201dShe says the word \u201ciconic\u201d constantly.She uses the phrase \u201cLisa Fucking Rinna\u201d constantly.The denim and glasses combo she wears in the premiere might be the worst thing anyone has ever worn on this show (and that is saying something):\"\"\"\"7. Candiace Dillard Bassett (The Real Housewives of Potomac)<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not convinced that Candiace understands the show she is on. She talks so damn much. Through three episodes, she\u2019s done the following:<\/p>\n

After being tapped as a Traitor, she immediately implicates Lisa Rinna as a Traitor rather than waiting to find out who the other Traitors are.She gets into a kerfuffle between Porsha and Rapaport by first telling Porsha that Rapaport is gunning for the Housewives and then, after Rapaport denies ever saying anything of that nature, gaslighting Porsha by being like, \u201cOh, no, you misheard me.\u201dShe openly defends Porsha at the roundtable, motivated not by strategy but by sheer Housewife loyalty.\u00a0She\u2019s been consumed by taking down the Secret Traitor, despite the fact that she and the Secret Traitor are technically on the same team.<\/p>\n

And those are just the big ones! In every single scenario, Candiace thrusts herself into the public eye, jumping off the top rope to join conversations with seemingly no larger plan. She\u2019s going to start putting a target not just on her back, but on the Traitors\u2019 backs as a whole. If there\u2019s anyone at risk of being a victim of Traitor-on-Traitor crime this season, it\u2019s easily her.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

8. Dorinda Medley (The Real Housewives of New York City)<\/p>\n

I was pretty convinced that the show had made Dorinda the Secret Traitor to guarantee that she wouldn\u2019t be sent home after the first episode, \u00e0 la Season 3. Turns out she\u2019s just made it this far on her own merit! Ride that Housewife alliance until the wheels fall off, girl.<\/p>\n

9. Mon\u00e9t X Change (RuPaul\u2019s Drag Race)<\/p>\n

Everyone loves Mon\u00e9t, and I love Mon\u00e9t for the way she Crip walks to the kitchen where Porsha and Candiace are about to have it out:<\/p>\n

\"\"10. Maura Higgins (Love Island UK)<\/p>\n

First of all, Maura has one of the greatest Irish accents ever put to film. Second of all, she says that her plan is to be \u201cthe sweet, nice, innocent girl from Love Island\u201d\u2014but I have personally seen her devour men whole on that show. Seriously, watch her destroy this dude:<\/p>\n

I cannot wait for someone to step to her on The Traitors (which, based on the preview for Episode 4, seems like it might happen sooner rather than later).<\/p>\n

11. Tara Lipinski (Olympic Skater)<\/p>\n

It is deeply funny that Tara Lipinski and Johnny Weir, two former Olympic figure skaters who have been commentating for the Winter Olympics together since 2014, have come into this game with the plan of downplaying their close relationship. Like, guys\u2014y\u2019all have very prominently been working together for over a decade! Millions of Americans watch the figure skating broadcast every four years!\u00a0<\/p>\n

I suppose they\u2019re relying on the hope that reality stars don\u2019t watch sports\u2014which, OK, yeah, so far that seems to be the case.<\/p>\n

12. Stephen Colletti (One Tree Hill)<\/p>\n

Look, I\u2019m taking major umbrage at the fact that The Traitors is trying to gaslight me into believing that Stephen\u2019s biggest contribution to pop culture was his 57-episode run as Chase Adams on One Tree Hill, and not being called STEPHAAAAAN by Kristin Cavallari and Lauren Conrad on MTV\u2019s Laguna Beach<\/a>. What are we doing here?! Why are you trying to lie to me, The Traitors?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Anyway, so far Stephen is nailing it as the guy you forget is also in the room. He currently has zero sway among the larger group, but I could see him cruising underneath the fray to the end of this season.<\/p>\n

13. Kristen Kish (Top Chef)<\/p>\n

We need to see more from Kristen\u2014to this point, she\u2019s mostly just made a handful of chef-related puns. But I think we will: I\u2019d be pretty surprised if the Traitors choose to murder her in the woods in the next episode.<\/p>\n

14. Mark Ballas (Dancing With the Stars)<\/p>\n

Lisa really hits the nail on the head in the season premiere when she says, \u201cIs that Kenny G?\u201d This guy looks exactly like Kenny G, and I\u2019m sure he gets pretty upset every time someone points this out.\u00a0<\/p>\n

15. Caroline Stanbury (The Real Housewives of Dubai)<\/p>\n

On night one, Caroline dresses as either David Byrne in Stop Making Sense or the Little Rascals trying to get a bank loan:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Game-wise, Caroline seems to have made a lot of friends, but thanks to Colton\u2019s shaky-ass hands, she\u2019s on the chopping block heading into Episode 4. Plus, in terms of the Housewife hierarchy, Dubai is undoubtedly on the bottom. Lisa and Candiace seem to have zero qualms about shanking her.<\/p>\n

16. Eric Nam (Singer-Songwriter)<\/p>\n

Forgive me, but: Am I supposed to know who this guy is? Everything I know about him I have learned from his Wikipedia, which essentially boils down to two interesting things:<\/p>\n

He got a job at Deloitte.\u00a0During the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea, he, I quote, \u201cappeared on the prime-time Olympic broadcast of American television network NBC, providing an in-depth look at K-pop.\u201d The hosts of that segment? Definitely-not-close-friends Johnny Weir and Tara Lipinski. [Gasp!]<\/p>\n

Either way, this sweet little soul is constantly on the short list to be murdered, and if it doesn\u2019t happen at the beginning of Episode 4, it\u2019ll probably happen soon after.\u00a0<\/p>\n

17. Johnny Weir (Olympic skater)<\/p>\n

Johnny Weir fell headfirst into a loch.<\/p>\n

\"\"18. Michael Rapaport (Generally Bad Hang)<\/p>\n

Jesus, talk about the worst dude ever. Fresh off announcing a mayoral run<\/a> against Zohran Mamdani in 2029 Rapaport is here in Scotland being the most annoying presence these other reality stars\u2014and I repeat: These are people who have been on reality TV\u2014have ever experienced. He is incredibly abrasive, deeply distracting, and off-puttingly fawning when it comes to the Real Housewives. (Stop calling yourself a glorified Housewife, my guy.) His personal vendetta against Yam Yam seems, at least in the context of everything we know about Rapaport\u2019s politics, based entirely on Yam Yam\u2019s ethnicity and sexual orientation. Whenever Rapaport gets banished\u2014and it will happen\u2014it won\u2019t be because anyone thinks he\u2019s a Traitor; it\u2019ll be because everyone is just sick of his fucking guts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Also, who drinks water like this?!<\/p>\n

\"\"19. Ron Funches (Comedian)<\/p>\n

Sorry, Ron. You\u2019re definitely gonna die soon.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>