Can PR learn from The Traitors?

The Celebrity Traitors returns on 1st October, and frankly, I cannot wait. Twenty-one celebrities. One castle. A cocktail of glamour, gossip, and murder.

Do communications professionals hold a secret advantage in the game? Skills like reading the room, controlling narratives, and building trust are PR staples — and can be invaluable when your next conversation might determine whether you make it to breakfast.

The Traitors goes beyond a mere game of deception. It's also a masterclass in reputation, influence and psychology, and the celebrities certainly raise the stakes. These contestants are gambling with established careers and reputations.

Slightly ironic, then, to draw communications lessons from a show built on lies. But as the celebrities head to the Highlands, what can the castle teach us?

1. Be faithful to the narrative

The Traitors shows how quickly an information void can be filled with speculation. At the round table, a glance becomes evidence. Theories turn into ‘facts’.

Sound familiar? In a crisis, silence speaks. If you don't offer credible information, someone else will — employees, journalists, the internet.  

Sharing clear, timely information while acknowledging what can't yet be shared protects trust in moments of commercial danger. Once a story takes hold, wrestling it back is far harder than shaping it in the first place.

2. Saying less says more

Every series has one: the contestant who talks straight into the firing line. One explanation becomes three. A simple question sparks a monologue. Suddenly everyone's wondering: are they lying?

Not every question needs an essay and not every silence needs filling. The sharpest spokespeople know when to land the point, and when to stop.

3. Read the room before the room reads you

In the castle, reading the room decides whether you make breakfast or get banished after dinner. The strongest players watch and they listen. They sense when the mood shifts and they move with it.  

PR works the same way. Your strategy is signed off, your activity approved, then the audience refuses to follow the plan. So, listen, watch, and be flexible.

When The Celebrity Traitors returns, relish the alliances, the accusations and that magnificent fringe. But watch the communication, too. There may be more to learn than you think.