All the massive rules The Traitors season four cast have blatantly broken so far

Filming The Traitors is very complicated, so there are lots of rules to keep the contestants in line. The cast of The Traitors season four seem to have already managed to break (or at least, heavily bend) four rules. Whoops. And Fiona was only responsible for, like, half of that!

1. Traitors can’t out other Traitors

“The Traitors’ Oath” isn’t just a fun gimmick. If the Traitors don’t swear to keep their identity and other Traitors’ identities a secret, the game would fall apart.

Traitors are allowed to make accusations against other Traitors… as long as they don’t out themselves as Traitors in the process. Fiona’s attack on Rachel came pretty close to doing this.

The executive producer of The Traitors, Mike Cotton, told Variety: “The rules say that they can, at the round table, accuse a fellow Traitor of being a Traitor, but only from the guise of being a Faithful themselves. What they could never do is say, ‘I know that he’s a Traitor because I’m one as well’, or, ‘Because I’ve been to the turret.’”

Surely, this was pushing it… ((Image via BBC iPlayer)

Fiona declared Rachel was a Traitor outside of a round table session, but she didn’t (directly) out herself. It sounds as if she didn’t flat-out break this role, but she bent it as much as she could without it snapping.

2. Certain things are banned from social media

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These rules aren’t unique to The Traitors. Most reality TV shows now have a team who advise (or sometimes flat-out control) the participants’ social media pages. Players on The Traitors must be careful not to spoil any aspect of the show on their socials.

Ellie and Ross broke this rule. They didn’t scrub their LinkedIn and Instagram pages thoroughly enough, and Traitors viewers spotted their connection before it was revealed on the show. Oops.

As this BBC show is watched by a lot of kids, it seems participants need to maintain a family-friendly vibe on social media. Matthew’s Instagram used to break this rule, as it contained photographs of him doing headstands, naked. (For his artwork. Not just recreationally). Ahead of The Traitors airing, Matthew took these pics down, and made a separate account for them.

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A post shared by Matty (@headstandmatty)

A source told the Daily Mail: “Matthew was warned about his naked headstand account ahead of The Traitors’ new season. While his posts are tastefully done, and he was even commissioned by the Royal Academy of Arts for one of them, it does create controversy, especially for the BBC. Every BBC contestant, whether on The Apprentice or The Traitors, has their online footprint carefully reviewed before broadcast. Matthew was asked to remove several images from his secret side profile.”

3. Don’t tell Faithfuls you are a Traitor

I am convinced Rachel broke this rule (although it wasn’t her fault).

Remember in the chapel, when Harriet asked the Traitors whether they would continue to protect Rachel? Rachel and Stephen wrote back, “No, take her.”

Get all these former barristers to dissect this rule, please
(Image via BBC iPlayer)

So, didn’t Rachel and Stephen essentially telling a Faithful that Rachel is a Traitor?

4. No spoiling the show

The Traitors absolutely can’t leak the outcome of the show. Participants have to sign non-disclosure agreements (NDAs), and promise not to talk about certain events. This is standard practice for reality TV shows. We don’t know the details of the rules for The Traitors, but cast members have hinted huge amounts of money are involved.

When the season two contestant Jaz detailed to The Sun how he prepped , he said: “You have to get a ton of stuff prepared [for] how you’re going to deliver this information to various family members to keep this a secret, because you’re under an NDA, and they will sue you for hundreds of thousands of pounds of TV damages if this gets leaked.”

Mad respect to anyone who goes on The Traitors and doesn’t brag about it to anyone for six months
(Image via BBC iPlayer)

Fiona did claim to have told some people she was going on The Traitors. “I told my husband and my son, but they had no inkling about the red cloak… you sign an NDA and there was no way I was going to lose my home through blabbing.”

It sounds as if she was careful not to cross the NDA, but she definitely, er, heavily bent this aspect of the rules.

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Featured image credit: BBC