“Traitors” Return: Season 2 of the Detective Reality Show with 21 Contestants and a 1 Million Hryvnia Prize Pool Premieres on SWEET.TV on September 17

On September 17, the second season of the Ukrainian psychological detective reality show “Traitors” — a local adaptation of the international format The Traitors — premieres on the SWEET.TV streaming platform. The project, which became one of the service’s most notable original shows in its first season, returns with an expanded cast: 21 contestants will compete in the game, and the prize pool will amount to 1 million hryvnia. Alexey Hnatkovsky remains the host of the season, as before. The premiere will air in the form of several episodes at once, after which new episodes will be released every Thursday.

Format and Game Mechanics

“Traitors” combines a psychological game, a social experiment, and detective reality. At the start of the game, each contestant is assigned one of two roles — Loyal or Traitor — while the players do not know each other’s roles. The Loyal players’ task is to identify the Traitors and reach the finale without letting them win; the Traitors, in turn, must remain undetected, influence the group’s decisions, and gradually eliminate their opponents. There is no script: the outcome depends entirely on the contestants’ own decisions, as they observe each other’s behavior, discuss suspicions, form alliances, and try to figure out who can be trusted.

Key Mechanics: The “Round Table” and Day/Night

One of the show’s central mechanics is the “Round Table,” where the contestants gather together, discuss whom they suspect of being a Traitor, and vote to eliminate one of the players. At the same time, the Traitors have the opportunity to influence those still in the game, so every decision can have consequences not only for the suspect but for all the participants. During the day, the players complete team challenges and earn money for the prize pool, while in the evening the game shifts to a different plane — conversations, suspicions, votes, and attempts to understand who is truly playing against the team.

What Has Changed in the Second Season

In the second season, not only the cast will change. The contestants’ introductions will begin even before they arrive at the Schönborn Palace: everyone will travel to the location on a single train, and the first conversations, observations, and the formation of first impressions will start before the official beginning of the game. New game artifacts capable of influencing the course of events will appear, and the challenges will become a more important part of the season’s storyline. A separate new element will be a character named Solomiy — a butler from the otherworldly realm, who will enhance the atmosphere of the palace. The prize pool will change: the contestants will compete for 1 million hryvnia, and any money the team fails to earn through the challenges will be impossible to recover.

Cast of Contestants

In the new season, 21 contestants with different professional and life experiences will compete. Among them are well-known Ukrainian bloggers and media personalities: journalist Ramina Eskhakzai, million-follower blogger Dmytro Varvaruk, comedian from “Levy na Dzipi” Konstantin Trembovetsky, and supermodel Tatyana Bryk. The players’ diverse experience is set to complicate the psychological aspect of the game and make predictions about the outcome less obvious for viewers.

First Season and Filming Location

The first season showed how quickly trust and alliances can shift in such a format: contestants could start the day as allies and by evening find themselves on opposite sides during a vote. The Traitors had to strike a balance — being active enough to influence the game without drawing too much attention — while the Loyal players had to make decisions without the ability to verify their suspicions. It was precisely this uncertainty that became one of the format’s defining features. The first season became a successful original project on SWEET.TV and gathered over 12 million views. The second season, like the first, was filmed at the Schönborn Palace in Zakarpattia, but this time viewers will see more of its expanses: the team opened new rooms for filming, some of which had to be restored.