Do you need to watch The Traitors seasons 1 and 2 ahead of season 3?

Fans of The Traitors are more than ready for season 3. We know that it will premiere on Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. The great news is that there’s time to play catchup if you’ve never seen the series before.

Of course, there’s the question of whether you need to play catchup. Is this one of those shows that builds on previous seasons? Or will you get away with watching season 3 first and then playing catch up? After all, there’s a lot of other great shows arriving at the end of this year!

You don’t need to watch The Traitors seasons 1 and 2 first

If you genuinely don’t have the time to play catchup, there is some good news. This isn’t necessary. Each season of The Traitors resets the game. There are new contestants, new tactics, and new challenges.

Alan Cumming has hosted the previous two seasons just like he’ll host this third one. He didn’t make many mentions of the first season in the second one, so I wouldn’t expect him to mention much of the previous two seasons this season. After all, the aim of the game is to shock and deceive people. Cumming gets in on that as well.

If the game was exactly the same, it would be easy for all the challengers to add to the pot, right? If Cumming had the same pattern for murders, Round Table events, and surprise twists in adding Traitors, it would end up being easy to work things out. Everything has to be different.

It’s worth catching up on The Traitors, though

Just because you don’t need to watch the first two seasons doesn’t mean you shouldn’t. This will give you a good idea of the way the game is played. This is more than your usual reality competition. The Traitors have to work with the Faithfuls to build up the pot, and they need to prevent themselves from being outed at the Round Table.

Watching the first two seasons will give you an idea of the type of tactics that are played. You’ll get a chance to see some of the challenges that everyone will need to go through. There’s also a chance to see just how chaotic the Round Tables can end up being.

So, if you are looking for something to watch, add The Traitors to your list before season 3 arrives.

The Traitors season 3 premieres on Thursday, Jan. 9. Catch up on seasons 1 and 2 on Peacock right now.