TV Topics: Alan Cumming On Hosting The Psychological Thrill Ride of “The Traitors”

Alan Cumming is anything, if not unpredictable. The Emmy and Tony Award-winning actor whose career spans space, time, and genre has taken on an array of challenges, Doctor Who to The Good Wife, playing a James Bond and the mutant hero Nightcrawler in X-Men, has made it his mission to always try something new.

Cumming is so unpredictable, even he did not know he would be hosting The Traitors. He did not pursue the job, “It was just sort of, it was this mistake,” shared Cumming. “It just sort of came to me.” Thank goodness it did, because his witty, colorful, and camp Emmy-winning hosting work on the reality competition is some of the most fun you can have watching TV. This may explain why the reality series won the Emmy for Outstanding Reality Competition Program while Cumming won Outstanding Host for a Reality or Reality Competition Program.

His eclectic choices, as often seen in his much talked about The Traitors wardrobe selection, reflect a fearless willingness to take risks, diving into roles and projects that defy expectation. Few things scream risk-taker like his bold, brave monologue when guest hosting Jimmy Kimmel Live! – a must watch 13 minutes of television where Cumming pulled no punches.

What better gig for such a versatile talent than hosting The Traitors, a reality show he describes as “Lord of the Flies with Botox”? Recently, Cumming joined me on TV Topics to answer the classic TV focused questions and while doing so, offering a glimpse into the psychological chaos, that makes The Traitors must-watch TV.

Cumming’s journey to The Traitors was itself a leap of faith. “It was just kind of something different and the nice people. I thought they seemed fun to, it was a bit of jumping off a cliff that, I didn’t know what I was doing, a whole new thing,” he shared. “But, if it’s nice people, what’s the worst thing that can happen? It gets cancelled. So yeah, that was why it wasn’t I sought it. But I think it’s a really great idea to be open to new things and to not be bound by what you’ve done before.”

This openness to risk mirrors the deception at the heart of The Traitors, where players navigate a castle filled with lies and betrayal. The show’s round table scenes, where players get banished from the show, are where the tension peaks. “In the round tables, it’s very, very tense. They play this scary music for about five minutes. And then I come in at the end of the thing. So, it’s engineered to be really stressful,” Cumming explained.

“And often they’re really scared to talk. So that’s, and then it gets really brutal sometimes, really brutal. And I have to sometimes intervene.” The atmosphere is deliberately crafted to push players to their emotional limits, creating raw, unfiltered drama that is often like a car crash you cannot look away from. “It’s sort of psychological torture. These people are in a bubble. They’re not allowed their phones, they sort of become obsessed with the game and they take it personally,” Cumming noted.

“They start, even though they know it’s a game, but they actually started to say things that make no sense, ‘I could never be a traitor’. Yes, you could, if I tapped you on the shoulder.” This loss of rationality, as players spiral into paranoia, is what makes the show so compelling – a descent into a “vortex of irrationality.”

Cumming elaborated, “It’s a psychological minefield, and I think that’s what, I used to think it was just about the fact that we could see people lying, watch people having to lie. But I think it’s actually more of a general psychological, you go down this, you go with them. It’s very immersive. And I suppose the fact is all takes place in that castle. And it’s also just spooky that it makes you kind of go on this journey with these people.”

As host, Cumming brings his own flair, elevating the show with some theatrical gravitas. “I quote Shakespeare all the time. I’ve quoted Plato, I’ve quoted Goethe. I don’t think any other competition reality show has ever had so many Shakespearean quotes spouted,” he said with a laugh. He also introduced his dog, Lala, to the mix, joking, “I think I brought on, made, pushed her to international stardom. She’s a great silent movie actress. She just communicates with her eyes.”

Cumming tackled the classic TV Topics questions, revealing his TV passions, reminiscing about loving Starsky and Hutch and The Six Million Dollar Man, a role he’d love to play, adding his own “kooky” twist. During the conversation, he brought up more than a dozen shows spanning decades, but things really got interesting came when he answered the TV Topics question, ‘What’s the greatest TV moment in TV history… according to Alan Cumming?’

His response will blow the minds of The Traitors fans, “I think is going to come in season four of The Traitors,” he declared. “There is something that happens that is just so insane. And so they go nuts. And there’s some behavior that happens because of it that is just outlandish. So I honestly, it’s certainly the best moment of Traitors TV history.”

Watch all three seasons of The Traitors streaming on Peacock as we all wait patiently for the announcement of the explosive fourth season. Also, be sure to listen to Cumming’s full episode of TV Topics where much, much more is discussed about The Traitors, the bittersweet experience of hosting Jimmy Kimmel Live!, how his sense of humor can get him in trouble, and more of the TV that he loves.

Check out Alan Cumming as well as 33 other TV Topics guests on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.