After “The Traitors” Season 2 captivated reality fans and newcomers alike, the production company behind the Peacock reality series, Studio Lambert, used the format as a launching pad to find its next hit.
” ‘The Traitors’ has been hugely successful because it’s a wonderful format,” EP Stephen Yemoh told TheWrap. “We looked at ‘The Traitors’ and other formats, and thought, how can we gamify social media? How can we make social media a bit of a game and … tap into the great strategy mindset and the great thirst for strategy shows that is with viewers at the moment?”
“The Anonymous,” which debuted its first three episodes on USA Network Monday night, recruits 12 plays to manipulate and mislead other contestants for the chance to win up to $100,000. The game is played in two worlds: the real world — where players add to the prize fund via challenges and build relations IRL — and anonymous mode — where contestants craft an online identity in the privacy of their hideouts.
With the hybrid game-play, the USA Network series combines “The Traitors” with “The Circle,” which hails from Studio Lambert produced and was also executive produced by Yemoh, mixing in mind games from the Peacock hit competition with “what viewers can get from seeing people in the room by themselves.”
Like the inaugural season of Peacock’s “The Traitors,” “The Anonymous” welcomed in a couple competition TV veterans as well, including “Big Brother” alum Xavier Prather and Australian “Survivor” contestant Nina Twine, who also happens to be the daughter of “Survivor” legend and “The Traitors” Season 2 alum Sandra Diaz-Twine.
While Prather and Twine are well-versed in strategy game-play, Yemoh said the team was “keen” and “not adverse to having them” due to the nature of the show, which would test them in a way that never been tested before. “Going into the hideouts and … pretend to be someone else is completely alien to them,” Yemoh said. “We didn’t feel like it gave them too much advantage — we wanted it to be as level a playing field as possible for all the cast.”
With other players having expertise in areas from poker to video games, Yemoh noted “everyone had a reason to be there,” regardless of whether they were regularly in the public spotlight or not.
Viewers might also recognize one of the cast members as Andy King, who attempted to salvage the disaster that was Fyre Festival — a choice that somewhat resembles the casting of former British politican, John Bercow, on “The Traitors” Season 2. As “The Anonymous” team looked to cast a “broad range” of contestants, King emerged as a player Yemoh thought the audience and his fellow contestants would buy into as well.
“Even though the Fyre Festival was a spectacular failure — I’m sure Andy wouldn’t mind me saying that — he always came across as quite a warm character on it,” Yemoh said. “We saw that he was willing to do in order to help Billy [McFarland] and Ja Rule and everyone to make this thing work. He was willing to go above and beyond, and we thought that was really endearing.”
Whether the players are forthcoming with their skills or background in gaming or deception, however, is up to them.
By the end of Episode 3, several alliances have formed, which Yemoh said was expected by the producers — with the caveat that nobody could 100% trust their respective teamups, as a player could easily zig when they agreed to zag in anonymous mode.
“Jack [Usher] and Andy show you that in the first few episodes — They’re pals in the real world [and] … they see themselves as a real sort of duo, but Jack is playing hard when it comes to anonymous mode,” Yemoh said. “He’s throwing Andy under the bus, but Andy has no idea, and that’s a really good strategy from Jack in order to keep [himself] anonymous.”
Yemoh was especially impressed with how quickly players “got” the game, despite not having watched previous seasons of the show. “They understood the game and then played their own individual strategies, which I think really makes for a good watch, because … as a viewer, you understand the game very quickly, because the players that are playing understand the game again quickly,” he said.
In anonymous mode, players can discuss who they would like to eliminate before locking in their vote, though it’s up to whichever lucky player is crowned the anonymous — based on which one’s identity remains best concealed — on who they want to eliminate.
“In those episodes coming up … the votes were really sprayed around,” Yemoh said, noting the to spread out votes in order to give themselves less of a chance of being voted out. “What I love about this one is that nobody’s safe. You only need one vote to be up for elimination.”
Yemoh teased there are “plenty more twists and turns” to come along the rest of the season, including a “big twist” in Episode 4.
“There’s a big twist coming up for and that really changes things, and it’s really interesting to see how the players react to that big twist,” Yemoh said. “The face-off continues to be a really good part of the show … the game essentially stays the same, but the stakes change and they get bigger and more exciting.”
“The Anonymous” debuts on Mondays at 11 p.m. ET/PT on USA Network and will stream on Peacock a week after their debut on USA Network.
