It seems like everyone across the country is tuning in to The Traitors US this year. The show, which pulled mediocre numbers on the Peacock streaming service in season one, has exploded in its sophomore season. But why is everyone watching The Traitors? What has made everyone absolutely obsessed? It’s not just one thing, but the combination of four very brilliant moves that makes this TV show so good.

1. Reality TV Crossover

Regardless of what your typical genre of Reality TV is, you’re sure to see some of your favorites represented. There’s a group of Bravo housewives and a Bling Empire star. There’s Survivor and Big Brother contestants. Dating shows more your style? Tune in to see The Bachelor and Love Island contestants in action.

The way this show manages to transcend genre is truly revolutionary. If you watch one Housewives show, you probably watch them all. If you watch one dating show, or one competition show, you’re probably at least familiar with the cinematic universe. This show pulls in someone from every major category of reality TV to garner the largest audience possible.

2. The Casting

This could be encompassed in point one, but it’s big enough that it deserves its own separate bullet. Not only are they casting from across franchises, but they are casting the best of the best in each franchise.

If you were to ask 100 people who the Queen of Survivor was, 49 would say Parvati Shallow and 49 would say Sandra Diaz-Twine. They’re both on the show! (the other two would say Cirie Fields—she played in season 1)

From The Big Brother, casting pulled both Janelle Pierzina and Dan Gheesling, both of whom are consistent fan favorites and most strategic players the game has ever seen.

You have CT and Trishelle from The Challenge.

Phaedra and Larsa from Housewives.

These are people who have proven themselves as pinnacles of reality TV. They’re not only strategic masterminds, but they know how to make really good television! Notably, most of these people came to fame in the pre-social media era, meaning that they’re not afraid to play a villain given that they were typecast before it was possible to get death threats in their DMs.

These are icons, and it’s a pleasure to watch them all play together.

3. The Format

Bringing so many “Gamers” (as they’ve coined themselves) together, you could expect them to essentially run the game. But because the format is so different from any other reality TV show, it gives everyone a fair chance.

The Traitors is structured like the classic game “mafia”. There’s a group of 20 people, 3 of whom are Traitors. The traitors know who each other are, but the faithfuls have no idea. Every night, the traitors “murder” one person, who’s kicked out of the game. At breakfast, the faithfuls find out who was murdered, and that evening they (including the traitors) vote for one suspected person to be banished. Their goal is to end up with only faithfuls at the end to win a prize. If a traitor is left, the traitor takes it all.

The fast paced game hurts Big Brother players. The strategy hurts Housewives. The lack of overtly physical competitions hurts The Challenge. The innocent social game hurts Survivor players. It’s the perfect combination of elements that puts everyone on even ground and lets us see our favorite players in a new light.

Every week, I’m STRESSED that my favorites are going to be murdered or banished, and that puts pressure on both me as a viewer and the players as players.

4. Appointment Viewing

At first this list was only going to have three things on it, but this fourth piece cannot be underestimated. The Traitors US airs each week at 9pm EST. Despite being on a streaming service and not on network, it’s slow releasing the show each episode. This forces us to tune in week after week, and live Friday through Wednesday in a state of suspense.

Twitter loves to talk about shows, and the opportunity has gotten rarer in recent years. When there’s a chance to tune in as a group, we’re doing it! We saw that with Succession last year, when everyone sat down Sunday night for a communal viewing experience. The Traitors uses that technique as well, and the suspense manages to keep it trending all week long.

The first season dropped in one chunk, and while I heard good things, the conversion died down before I bothered to watch it. For season 2, people were talking about it for so long (two whole weeks) that I started to watch. And now I’m watching live! More shows need to bring back appointment viewing, and take a lesson from the success of Peacock’s streaming show.

Honorable Mentions

I couldn’t leave it at just these four major points! The show would not be the show without:

• Alan Cumming as host
• The outfits people choose to wear
• Traitor’s costumes that they wear each night
• Phaedra. She deserves her own bullet

Are you watching The Traitors? Who do you think is going to win season 2?