Is it really only two months since The Traitors’ third season wrapped for good?
Well, don’t worry: Netflix is serving up a hot slice of Traitors-inspired action this week for people to snack on instead.
Titled Million Dollar Secret, the premise is suspiciously familiar to that of the gameshow we all know and love. Set in a grand lakeside mansion in the wilds of Kelowna (that is, Canada) called The Stag, the show will welcome twelve contestants, one of whom is hiding a secret.
What secret would that be? Why, one of its cast members is in possession of a serious amount of cash. When the show begins, all the contestants will be asked to open their own “mysterious welcome gift – a box.”
Most of the boxes are empty, but one contains one million dollars.
It’s their job to hide this fact from the others, who will all be doing their utmost to try and sniff out who the guilty party might be.
At the end of the game, if that person has managed to conceal their riches from the others (dubbed the ‘Hunters’), then they get to keep the money.
Of course, various challenges and tasks (plus the stress of living with eleven other people 24/7) makes this easier said than done.
As the show’s trailer says, it’s “yours to keep if you can hide the fact you've won the money. Getting the million dollars is easy. But how far would you be willing to go and keep it?”
The whole thing will be presented by actor Peter Serafinowicz, an English actor and comedian who has appeared in shows like Parks and Recreation, Shaun of the Dead and, of course, The Peter Serafinowicz Show.
The Traitors, of course, has a very similar premise. Based in turn on the Dutch gameshow, it welcomes 25 contestants to a castle in the Scottish highlands for two weeks of deception and betrayal. Several of those guests are the ‘Traitors’, and it’s their job to ‘murder’ the other contestants without getting caught.
If a Traitor manages to make it to the final episode without getting caught, they win the entire cash prize, which usually reaches around £120,000.
It has been a massive ratings hit for the BBC. The season three finale drew in 7.4 million viewers, a 1.6 million increase on season two. That makes it the most-watched episode in the history of the show; the odds are good that season four, when it launches, will be even bigger.
With that in mind, it makes sense that other networks would seek to capitalise on the show’s success – though whether it’ll take off in the same way The Traitors has is yet to be seen.
When’s it out?
The show debuts on Netflix on March 26. However, similarly to The Traitors, only the first three episodes are coming out. The next three will follow on April 2, and the last two will air on April 9.
