How to Build the Perfect Cast for The Traitors Season 3

When the news broke that The Traitors U.S. was renewed for a third season, fans and media alike furiously started jotting down their cast wish lists. It's no surprise — fantasy casting The Traitors is a blast for reality TV fans. Just mix and match your faves from the other reality shows you watch and make a roster. It's like fantasy football, only in this case, your fantasy roster might actually get to play together in real life.

What too many fantasy rosters for The Traitors don't acknowledge is that casting is an alchemy. The success of Season 2 owes a lot to the precise balance of reality TV alums. Season 1, in addition to being weighed down by half a cast full of star-struck normies, was also unbalanced among the reality veterans. Cirie Fields, Stephenie LaGrossa, and Rachel Reilly all being connected through the short-lived reality competition Snake in the Grass definitely tipped the game in their favor. Season 2 opted for a full cast of reality TV veterans but made sure to calibrate it to keep, for example, the master strategists of Survivor and Big Brother from running the game, while giving the presumably less savvy contingent from Bravo's Housewives shows a slight numbers advantage to keep them from being overrun.

The Season 2 cast broke down pretty evenly, with seven from the Bravo-sphere (Phaedra Parks, Sheree Whitfield, MJ Javid, Tamra Judge, the Larsa Pippen-Marcus Jordan pair, and a returning Kate Chastain), seven from the Paramount-connected social-strategy shows (Survivor's Parvati Shallow and Sandra Diaz-Twine, Big Brother's Dan Gheesling and Janelle Pierzina, and The Challenge's Johnny Bananas, CT Tamburello, and Trishelle Canatella), and eight miscellaneous wild cards pulled from shows like Love Island and Bling Empire, as well as professional sports and politics.

By pulling one Bravo representative and one Paramount representative into the turret and making them traitors, the show's producers ensured a fair competitive balance. That has largely played out during the game, with the "gamers" (the Paramount strategists) and the Bravo people taking turns whacking at each other for a few weeks, before some crucial cross-alliances were made. Even better, the wild cards, who started off seeming like they'd be the easiest to be picked off, have pulled together a power alliance of Peter, Bergie, Kevin, and John (with Trishelle sliding over to their side). What's resulted has been a fun and unpredictable battle.

When it comes to Season 3, the show's producers will want to keep a similar balance. So, who do you cast?

The Bravos

Season 2 has had a smart mix of Housewives that ensured that there wouldn't be too many pre-existing relationships (and thus unbreakable bonds) among the cast. Larsa's only stone-cold connection was to Marcus; Sheree and Phaedra were old friends from even before they did The Real Housewives of Atlanta together. Otherwise, it's an alliance with big numbers that could still be broken up by savvy social game play.

To replicate that mix, there should only be a small handful of actual Housewives. Phaedra's success in Season 2 pretty much demands her Atlanta nemesis Kandi Burruss be brought in for Season 3 (she's going to have some free time now that she's quit Housewives). It would also be nice to liberate Candiace Dillard-Bassett from the past couple deeply unpleasant seasons of The Real Housewives of Potomac. Finally, Sutton Stracke is exactly the kind of wily, paranoid, bizarre personality who would be a massive hit on The Traitors.

To inject a little bit of youth into the mix, you'll have to look outside of the Housewives bubble to shows like Vanderpump Rules and Winter House. Scheana Shay was a day-one star on Vanderpump and is very good at making everybody else's business her business, which honestly is a smart quality to have on The Traitors. Meanwhile, Lindsay Hubbard is another potential cast member reeling from a breakup and perhaps looking to try new hobbies. She's the type of person who can switch loyalties on a dime if she's crossed or even slighted, all good qualities for a social-strategy show, at least from a viewer's perspective.

It's harder to cast men from the Bravo-verse, as the women take up much more of the oxygen on that network. But it's hard to imagine that The Real Housewives of New Jersey's Joe Gorga wouldn't jump at the chance to get the spotlight on himself at last. And speaking of Bravo stars who relish the spotlight, Jeff Lewis has been p*ssing people off and making enemies on that network for years. You could easily see him as the DGAF agent of chaos in the mold of Kate Chastain.

Others to consider: If Lindsay isn't interested, an invitation to her ex, Carl Radke, should be immediately extended. RHOBH's Dorit Kemsley's roundtable monologues might have her opponents volunteering for banishment. Jenna Lyons didn't seem to have much interest in being a New York City Housewife, but maybe being a Traitor is more her speed. And finally, LuAnn DeLesseps should never not be an option.

The Gamers

These would be your social-strategy game veterans, who are used to starring on shows where you vote your opponents out. Season 2 was not a strong endorsement for the legends of Big Brother, as both Dan and Janelle flamed out pretty quickly, doing some real damage to their reputations as the best of the best. There's still at least one Big Brother fan favorite who might be willing to put her reputation on the line, and that's Danielle Reyes. She's widely accepted as the best Big Brother player never to win the game, and she just returned for the BB winter mini-season, so maybe her competitive juices are still flowing.

Another Big Brother alum fans would likely flock to see would be Kaysar Ridha, whose popularity has always outshined his ability to actually succeed at Big Brother. But The Traitors might prove to be a better match for his more cerebral approach to game play.

Survivor alums who would be great on The Traitors outnumber the stars, but we're advocating for: Season 44 champ Yam Yam Arocho, who is likable, opinionated, and would give almost as many dynamite sound bites as Phaedra has this season; Malcolm Freberg who has the very Cirie-like distinction of being a massive fan favorite who never made it to a final; and Jerri Manthey, the original villainess of Survivor, who could have a huge redemption story now that we're a little more aware of how women can be railroaded by sexist TV narratives.

The Challenge is far more of a physical challenge than The Traitors is — which is probably why it was so easy to dump Johnny Bananas in the very first episode this season. But that show has produced at least one Machiavellian strategist, and that's Wes Bergmann. His appearance on The Challenge USA last summer was billed as his swan song to that franchise, but maybe he's got a season of castle-dwelling left in him. His ability to whisper in corners and get other people to fall in line with his plans would be irresistible as either a traitor or a faithful.

Finally, Sarah Rice hasn't been seen on The Challenge since she got her half of the prize money stolen from her by Johnny Bananas at the end of Rivals 3. To succeed on the show that her hated rival flamed out on might be the kind of revenge she'd be up for. Sarah was always incredibly brainy for a Challenge star, and she'd likely take to the brain game elements of The Traitors quite well.

Others to consider: There's Survivor champions like Natalie Anderson and Yul Kwon and Big Brother winners like Taylor Hale and Andy Herren. Eliza Orlins (Survivor) and Britney Haynes (Big Brother) are fan favorites with no reluctance to hold their tongues. Aubry Bracco and Carson Garrett both came very close to winning Survivor and would show up to The Traitors well prepared (particularly Carson, who'd likely have a 3D-printed model of the castle turret just in case it might give him an edge). And if the most recent season of The Challenge has taught us anything, it's that Nurys Mateo can take down just about anybody.

The Wild Cards

Here's where we can really go crazy. Peter Weber's success as a former Bachelor tells you anyone can blossom as a Traitors strategist. At the top of our list is Tim Gunn, whose eye for detail in the fashion industry could be put to great use while observing behavior around the breakfast table. Shark Tank's Barbara Corcoran is steely and uncompromising; you could see her pulling a John Bercow-style "banishment should be your punishment" speech at the roundtable.

Peppermint was banished way too soon this season, in part because she didn't have any natural allies. Which is why we need to cast a tandem of Drag Race-connected individuals in Trixie Mattel (who is smarter than she lets on and would give fantastic talking-head sound bites) and judge Ts Madison, who is a magnetic personality who could really gather some allies (and continue Peppermint's call for trans representation).

Chloe Veitch came to Season 2 of The Circle as a veteran of Netflix's Too Hot to Handle, so we know she's able to adapt from one reality show to another. She may not be a master strategist, but she's super fun, and every season needs a Bergie. Speaking of fun, if we're to have another pro athlete in the mix this season, there's no better choice than former NFL star Marshawn Lynch, whose infectious personality has graced reality shows like The Great American Baking Show and movies like Bottoms. And if we cast Marshawn, we have to cast Claim to Fame champion Gabriel Cannon, who wasn't related to Marshawn Lynch (he's Nick Cannon's brother), though for a while everybody assumed he was.

Finally, there are probably a few villains already in the mix among the celebs we've already cast, but just to make sure, why not throw out an invitation to Bobby Flay? He's a huge Food Network star, where at least one of his shows — Beat Bobby Flay — is predicated on the idea that everybody wants to see his cocky ass lose. That's exactly the kind of player you need on your reality show cast.

Others to consider: So many! Besides all the drag queens and sharks we opted not to cast, there's literally anyone from Selling Sunset (Christine or Chrishell would be superstar casting, though something says Mary would be a fierce competitor), the currently-feuding Queer Eye frenemies Bobby Berk and Tan France, Food Network/Top Chef talent like Carla Hall and Alex Guarnaschelli, any number of Claim to Fame star relatives but especially Shayne Murphy and L.C.Palmer, and the one wild card it hurt the most not to cast… American Idol lightning rod Sanjaya Malakar. Maybe in Season 4!

Joe Reid is the senior writer at Primetimer and co-host of the This Had Oscar Buzz podcast. His work has appeared in Decider, NPR, HuffPost, The Atlantic, Slate, Polygon, Vanity Fair, Vulture, The A.V. Club and more.