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More Taylor Swift fans than ever before likely tuned in to this season of The Traitors to watch Donna Kelce — who is the mom of the pop superstar’s fiancé, Travis Kelce — compete. But in a new interview, the show’s producers revealed how those extra eyeballs impacted the show in ways they didn’t expect.
While speaking to Variety in a Thursday (Feb. 12) breakdown of the competition series’ fourth installment, executive producers Rosie Franks and Sam Rees-Jones reflected on the choice to not only cast Donna, but to also make her The Traitors‘ first ever Secret Traitor. “She really did want to play,” Franks began. “She came with so much strategy.”
“And then the idea of having Taylor Swift’s future mother-in-law wandering around the castle secretly in a red cloak, there’s nothing more camp than that,” she continued. “So we felt like that really would lean into the tone of The Traitors.”
What the showrunners didn’t expect, however, was that the other contestants on the Peacock reality competition would feel influenced by the 14-time Grammy winner’s fanbase when making decisions on who to vote in or out of the castle. “We never thought the players would be scared of the Swiftes, but maybe we underestimated the Swifties,” Rees-Jones said.
Franks agreed, “Never underestimate the Swifties.”
Indeed, Donna’s competitors were keenly aware of how her soon-to-be daughter-in-law’s devoted listeners might react if they crossed her on the show. As Dorinda Medley said in one episode, “No one’s gonna murder [Donna] — the Swifties will kill you.”
Season four premiered on Jan. 8, revealing in episode three — when she was eliminated — that the Kelce matriarch was the first contestant on the show to ever compete as a Traitor without the other Traitors ever knowing her identity. At one point, she aptly quoted Swift’s Midnights track “Vigilante Shit,” saying, “Don’t get mad, get even.”
She now has her youngest son’s wedding to look forward to, something she touched on when TMZ approached her recently and asked whether she’d signed an NDA ahead of the under-wraps ceremony.
“No, no, no,” she told the outlet. “[Taylor and Travis] know I can keep a secret.”
