During the first season of The Traitors, the reality show featured previously unknown people who became very memorable. Despite featuring some unknown people, Alan Cumming did such a good job hosting The Traitors that he earned new fans and the show became a massive hit. That said, The Traitors has mostly starred celebrities like Dan Gheesling, who flopped on the show, and Peter Weber, who was controversial.
The Traitors’ third season cast featured more celebrity players, including Big Brother and Real Housewives stars. After Big Brother’s Danielle Reyes became a villain, she revealed what went on behind-the-scenes of the third season’s controversial “murder” of Dorinda Medley.
The Traitors’ Danielle Reyes Perfectly Explained The Strategy Of The Third Season’s Controversial First Murder
When the cast for The Traitors Season 3 was announced, there were many names that fans were excited to see. For example, there were iconic reality competition show stars like Danielle Reyes, “Boston” Rob Mariano, and Tony Vlachos among others.
On top of that, the season’s cast featured several people who clearly could bring the drama. One person that many fans couldn’t wait to see calling people out in Alan Cumming’s castle was Dorinda Medley from The Real Housewives of New York City.
Sadly for many fans, however, Dorinda’s time on The Traitors was cut extremely short when she became the first player to be “murdered.” After that extremely early exit, Danielle Reyes stepped forward to defend her role in Dorinda’s “murder” since she was one of the Traitors.
On January 14th, 2025, Danielle posted a video on her X/Twitter account about Dorinda’s “murder.” During that almost four-minute video, Danielle perfectly explained the logic behind why she and the other Traitors decided to “murder” Dorinda.
Danielle Reyes and Dorinda Medley’s Reality Shows | ||
|---|---|---|
Show | Danielle or Dorinda | Tenure |
Big Brother | Danielle Reyes | 2002-2023 |
The Real Housewives of New York City | Dorinda Medley | 2010-2020 |
The Real Housewives: Ultimate Girls Trip | Dorinda Medley | 2022-2024 |
Big Brother Reindeer Games | Danielle Reyes | 2023 |
The Traitors | Both | 2025 |
While explaining why she, Bob the Drag Queen, and Carolyn Wiger immediately “murdered” Dorinda, Danielle began by bringing up that they had very limited options.
The Traitors had six options to choose from. Six.
To Danielle’s point, it definitely is true that the Traitors didn’t have many choices about who would be their first “murder.”
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Next, Danielle explained to the camera why it made perfect sense for the Traitors to “murder” one of the Housewives from a long-term strategy perspective.
When The Traitors Season 3 began, Danielle Reyes essentially entered the game alone. While there was another former Big Brother star Danielle knew well, Britney Haynes, they had an extremely fraught recent history. During Big Brother: Reindeer Games, Britney turned on Danielle and got her out of the game.
As Danielle rightfully pointed out, the four Housewives seemed like they were acting in unison, and an alliance of four players has a lot of power in the game.
“Of the six options, four of them were Housewives. Alright? Four is a pretty big number, you guys. That’s a big alliance. Right? Did you see how they grouped together and how they stuck together and jumped off that boat? That’s a big bond like no other. As Dorinda said, they’re like the freaking mafia. She said that. Okay? Alright.”
To Danielle’s point, the Real Housewives stars stuck together during The Traitors Season 2, and they were a formidable group.
Via: Photo by Janet Mayer/startraksphoto.com/Cover Images, Janet Mayer/INSTARimages.com via Instar, Peacock
As she continued talking about the Housewives, Danielle brought up how intimidating going against them at the roundtable would be.
To prove her point that the stars of The Real Housewives franchise are fearsome at the roundtable, Danielle brought up how Robyn Dixon handled herself. “Look at Robin at the round table. Snatching souls left and right.”
Since the Real Housewives franchise is known for arguments, Danielle felt that the Bravo stars would be extremely dangerous at the roundtable.
“The thing about a Housewife, Housewives do the due diligence. They gonna collect those receipts. They are dangerous. They gonna be like, ‘Yeah. See, on that day, when you were standing there and you scratched your head with your left hand, you normally scratch your head with your right hand.’ That’s how them Housewives get down. You can’t get nothing past those Housewives and then try to come at them at the round table.”
On top of explaining why it made sense for the Traitors to target one of the Real Housewives stars, Danielle explained why Dorinda was chosen first.
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While talking about choosing which Real Housewives star they should target, Danielle asked viewers if it made sense to go after the person who seemed to be the leader. Then, Danielle answered her rhetorical question by stating that going after the loudest Real Housewives star was the logical decision to make.
So what do you do? Do you take out you take out the leader. You take the one with the biggest voice.
Since Dorinda came across as the most outspoken Real Housewives star, it made sense to see her as the leader. Danielle went on to explain in her video why the Traitors feared Dorinda and wanted her out.
“So we decided, because Dorinda was the biggest voice, and we knew she will be the leader, and we knew if she piped one of us. And you guys could say, ‘Oh, but she wasn’t on to you.’ But she eventually may have been on to us, and that’s scary because once she had her eyes focused on somebody. Baby she’s gonna gather like, three people gonna follow her plus Bob Hopper that is five votes and your a** is banished Okay? So we did it as a preventative maintenance.”
Danielle also explained that the chaos created by Dorinda’s exit was good for the Traitors. “The other thing is we knew it would cause chaos. Look at the roundtable. We had a three-way tie. Three-way tie. And who broke the tie-breaker? Yes. A traitor. Carolyn broke the tie-breaker.”
Danielle Reyes Explained It Wasn’t The Traitors Responsibility To Allow Dorinda Medley To Entertain Viewers
As The Traitors’ Season 3 has aired, many viewers have expressed frustration with Danielle Reyes on social media. In fact, Danielle even posted an X/Twitter video on January 24th, 2025 reacting to all the anger. First, Danielle acknowledged how upset people were at her in that video. “Y’all is mad.” Then Danielle promised she would explain her moves during The Traitors when she could. “Just wait for the the reunion. We’re doing a reunion. That’s all I gotta say.”
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Clearly, Danielle understands that some The Traitors fans are mad at her. However, the thing that many The Traitors fans don’t seem to understand is what Danielle and the other Traitors’ roles are on the show.
During the aforementioned X/Twitter video that showed Danielle’s explanation for “murdering” Dorinda” she addressed what the role of the Traitors is.
There is a certain logic to the idea that The Traitors fans would be mad at the players they thought eliminated someone who would be entertaining. However, Danielle reminded viewers that she and her fellow Traitors weren’t focused on keeping the most entertaining people around. Instead, it was the Traitors goal to win the game and the money.
“I get it. ‘Oh it’s just gonna be great, you know? She messed up. She would have been great tv.’ I get that but we’re not producers. I’m not there to produce a show I’m not there for fans I’m there to win the money Come on, y’all. Stop. Like, they take a second and appreciate what we did.”
While it makes sense that fans were sad to see Dorinda go, Danielle clearly had a point about not being a producer.
The Traitors (US)
- Release Date
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January 12, 2023
- Showrunner
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Stephen Lambert
- Writers
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Lee Grant, Christine Rose
