Photo: PEACOCK/Euan Cherry/PEACOCK
Spoilers ahead for the first three episodes of Traitors season four. You’ve been warned!
Donna Kelce was not long for the Traitors castle. Two and a half episodes into season four, this year’s wild-card cast member was banished in a surprise daytime Round Table, bowing out to an almost unanimous vote (including from her fellow lone wolf, comedian Ron Funches) — and then revealing herself as the Secret Traitor, a new role as of this season.
Donna might have been doomed from the beginning. As Secret Traitor, she was tasked with giving the regular traitors a shortlist of four names to choose from for murder and operating completely solo, which meant covering up for herself while trying to figure out who her supposed co-conspirators were. That’s a lot of deception for a woman who has never competed on reality TV before. Still, it was a shame to see Donna ousted this early in the game — and why, even after bearing witness to Michael Rapaport’s traitors jingle, did the group want her out so urgently? I gathered a few Cut faithfuls to try to unpack what went wrong with Donna’s short-lived Traitors stint.
Danielle Cohen, senior news editor: Donna may have dabbled in acting, but she’s most known as a football mom and Taylor Swift’s future mother-in-law. What did you all make of her casting off rip?
Olivia Craighead, news writer: When I think of Donna Kelce, I’m always thinking about this pap walk/sponcon she did with a Ziploc bag full of leftover pizza. To me, she is someone who secretly loves being famous, which meant she was perfect for Traitors.
Catherine Thompson, features editor: It was obviously stunt casting. She was a very fun choice, but I was also skeptical of how her casting would affect the game because I assumed people would be too afraid of Swiftie backlash to cross her.
Amy Rose Spiegel, senior editor: I thought the casting was inspired. I love stunt casting when it’s the perfect unexpected way to cash in on the Zeitgeist. I wondered how Tree Paine, Taylor Swift’s notoriously tight-lipped publicist, felt about it and what her involvement was as the talks about Donna’s participation unfolded!
Andrea González-Ramírez, senior writer: Across franchises, there are often older cast members who kind of become the de facto mom or dad of the group, and she had potential to be that person. I was hoping she’d be a dark horse, but I was also afraid the rest of the cast would treat her with kid gloves out of fear to avoid the Swifties’ wrath.
Danielle: Yes, Donna’s standing with the Swifties ended up being a popular talking point in the castle. I have trouble believing they were that invested in Donna Kelce’s Traitors fate.
Amy Rose: I thought this fear seemed overblown, which might mark me as a complete and utter rube who’d get murdered on night one if The Cut had a Traitors.
Olivia: I have not seen any Swifties actually getting mad about Donna getting the boot. I think they are broadly supportive of her but don’t really care that much. That being said, if Kylie Kelce had been on the show, it might have been a different story.
Andrea: I don’t think Swifties would take issue with the cast voting Donna off unless someone said something extremely out of pocket about her future daughter-in-law. It said more about the cast’s own perception of Taylor’s power than the reality of how the Swifties move.
Danielle: The cast’s reaction to Donna and her lore was almost bigger than Donna herself.
Amy Rose: I did notice people going out of their way to fawn over Donna and profess their true adoration of her, although that seemed less like “Oh no, Swifties!!!” and more like recognition of the fact that she was a newcomer to reality TV and a self-styled fan of some of the cast. And probably a Traitor.
Catherine: Clearly, the notion that the fear of Swifties would lead the players to leave Donna alone was overblown. She was eliminated at the second Round Table! I expected her to have a much longer life among this cast, skating through to the end or near the end like Lord Ivar (a cousin of King Charles) did last season.
Danielle: Why do we think she got isolated so quickly in the castle’s social scene? Was it because she doesn’t have a built-in group like the Housewives or Gamers, because she was a Traitor, or something else?
Catherine: I think Donna’s isolation stemmed in part from how she decided to play the game after getting the Secret Traitor card. Her strategy appeared to be trying to float around the castle without drawing attention to herself between challenges and Round Tables, and other players clocked that demeanor immediately.
Olivia: They were like, “You look like you bake cookies!” She literally just looks like an older white woman.
Amy Rose: Agree that they were just doing “older white woman” tabula rasa at her. I genuinely believe she was shy and only loosening up in the episode when she got smoked. Sad! I liked watching her with more bite, like her comebacks to people accusing her in the last Round Table.
Marisa Carroll, executive editor: Sorry to be all women’s-studies major about it, but we live in a society that marginalizes older women, and I don’t think the cast knew how to interact with Donna without treating her like a caricature of a grandmother. Nothing she did in the castle screamed soft-and-fuzzy “America’s mom.”
Andrea: Traitors has a history of booting off cast members they can’t fully understand or who don’t fit in certain boxes. (See: Peppermint, whose banishment I still want avenged.) It seems like they didn’t fully know what to make of Donna; she just happened to also be a Traitor.
Olivia: Did you guys suspect she was the Secret Traitor? I didn’t.
Amy Rose: I thought I clocked her walk in early footage of the Secret Traitor taken from the back. Also, she was framed as nice, and stunt casting makes most sense for participation in a stunty twist.
Andrea: I thought about it when the Secret Traitor twist was announced and then told my husband it’d be too obvious.
Danielle: Let’s talk about her strategy as the Secret Traitor. Do you guys think she was a good pick?
Andrea: Producers really thought they ate with that. It felt like a good choice in theory but definitely not in practice. Her choices as a Secret Traitor didn’t fully make sense. She was in over her head, which is understandable. I would be too!
Olivia: She said she was picking people who were quiet and laid low, which is not the most fun way to play it! She should’ve put Rapaport on the short list.
Andrea: Her first shortlist made no sense. Whyyyyy would you fill it with four young, strong men who can help you add money to the pot. Rapaport was right there! Twice!
Catherine: I was also confused by Miss Donna’s first shortlist. Her downfall in this game was an inability to act and think on her feet in front of her castmates. That said, she enabled the Traitors’ eliminating two very good Gamers right off the bat, and that is huge for them. Despite how early she was eliminated, I think her legacy on the show will be that she set the Traitors up for a win this season. She did her job!
Danielle: She did not do a great job defending herself at the Round Table.
Olivia: You have to be a bit of a showman to really pull off a great Round Table performance, and that’s not really what Donna is famous for. It was kind of a flop when she was asked if she had heard anyone’s name being thrown out as a Traitor and she could produce no one. Speak up, girl!
Amy Rose: Speak Now, even …
Marisa: She is probably better at the game from her couch at home than she was in the castle. I think she was a bad pick for Secret Traitor — except if, conspiracy theory incoming, becoming a Traitor and going home right away was part of her agreeing to be on the show. A way to draw in Swiftie- and football-fan eyeballs without taking up too much of her time.
Brooke LaMantia, editorial assistant: I like that theory. Was she really acting that weird? I would’ve liked more suspicious behavior from her to justify being voted off. Everyone voted for her, and like two people voted for Michael? Make that make sense.
Danielle: Assuming she did want to last longer on the show, would she have been more successful as a regular Traitor or just a Faithful?
Andrea: I think she should have been a Faithful. It really feels she’d have been more comfortable that way.
Olivia: I think she could’ve won as a Faithful. Being a Traitor made her nervous and shy, and that’s what got her kicked out.
Amy Rose: I would have loved her as a Traitor Classic. I think she would have loved having a group to naturally be a part of, that she of all people would respect good coaching from the other Traitors and that it would have helped orient her strategy.
Olivia: She would’ve at least had a built-in alliance. I wish Dorinda was the Secret Traitor. Let’s have some fun!
Catherine: Dorinda would have killed as the secret traitor. Literally.
Danielle: Donna has been slowly making a name for herself beyond Ziploc spon (no shade). What has this brief Traitors stint done for her image, if anything?
Amy Rose: I’m more aware of the Kelces than ever, which I think was the point.
Andrea: I hope this opens the door for her to do other fun shows that are better suited to her personality. Let her have fun elsewhere!
Danielle: What should Donna do next?
Olivia: Let’s get her on Golden Bachelorette.
Marisa: Top Chef guest judge for a hypothetical Kansas City season (which they should do!).
Andrea: If she can bake, I’d put her in the celeb Bake Off. Can you imagine her with Alison and Noel?
Catherine: Petition to have Rob take Miss Donna out on a date!!! I bet she’d love snake wrangling.
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