Carolyn Wiger stands by the fact that she launched a relatively surprising career in reality TV simply to have fun. It’s what got Wiger, a life coach and drug counselor from the Twin Cities suburbs who’s known for her exuberantly gigantic personality, loud laugh, and offbeat jokes, on the 44th season of Survivor in 2023—she really, truly, thought it looked like a good time. And it’s why she was so excited to join season three of The Traitors.
“I genuinely like the show,” she says. “I was hooked on it before I was ever asked to be on.”
The show, streaming on Peacock (the season finale and reunion will hit screens on Thursday, March 6) is what the network describes as “Clue meets Mafia.” Twenty-one contestants, all with vague reality TV backgrounds, enter an extravagantly decorated Scottish castle. Host Alan Cumming (always impeccably dressed with witty one-liners to match) selects a few contestants to be “Traitors”—players who will hide their roles from the rest, the “Faithful,” and meet up in a turret wearing massively hooded cloaks (yes, really) each night to “murder” (send home) a Faithful. Everyone competes in games and challenges during the day, trying to figure out who the Traitors are. In the evening, they sit around a roundtable and collectively vote someone out. Only then will the player’s role be revealed.
Wiger, to her delight, was chosen as a Traitor, along with Drag Race’s Bob the Drag Queen, Big Brother star Danielle Reyes, and, introduced later, Survivor legend “Boston Rob” Mariano. And while Wiger was able to fly under the radar for the first handful of episodes, watching Traitor-on-Traitor drama unfold between Bob the Drag Queen and Boston Rob, she eventually became a sort of reality TV Cassandra, the mythical Greek priestess who told the prophecy and wasn’t believed until it was too late, when it came to Reyes. In episode nine, which aired a couple of weeks ago, Reyes launched a shocking campaign to vote Wiger out—and it worked. But to Wiger, those who play the game that way have already lost.
We checked in with Wiger ahead of the finale to learn about her time in the castle, hearing her strong Minnesota accent on TV (again), and what it means to stay true to yourself—even if it means letting the chess pieces fall where they may.
How did your arc on The Traitors come about? Were you a fan of the show?
God, yeah. I started watching during season two, and then I got hooked, and started watching the U.K. version, and the Australian and the New Zealand ones. I was really just watching because I liked it. People would tell me, “You’d be so good on this show,” and I’d say, “Just—stop.” Like, I never thought I’d be chosen. The people who have been on previously are Survivor people who have won and been on multiple times, no new-era people, and I’ve only played once. But while season two was airing, I got a call, and I couldn’t even believe it.
What was it about the show that drew you in?
I love Alan [Cumming]. The theatrics, the way he wears those clothes, how he interacts with the contestants—it just seemed so fun and campy and theatrical, and more light-hearted as far as how the game goes. Like, yes, you’re murdering and backstabbing, but it didn’t feel like that when I was watching it. It really seemed fun.
So you’re on the show, and in the first episode, Alan taps you on the shoulder, cementing your role as a Traitor. How did you feel about that? Was it something you wanted going in?
Yeah, 100 percent. We don’t really do interviews before you start, but I would have Zoom calls with producers, and every time I did them, I’d have my little cloak on—because I already had a cloak! I thought maybe they’d think Oh, perfect, a cloak, we have to make her a Traitor. Honestly, I thought it would be easy for me because I wouldn’t really bond with these people, I wouldn’t be able to relate to these Real Housewives or whatever.
But you did seem to connect with certain people.
I really did. I tried to keep things surface-level, mostly because I thought it would be easier for me to be this monster Traitor. And I didn’t love them all, and that’s OK, but I consider Rob a mentor now. And I love Gabby [Windey, formerly of The Bachelor and The Bachelorette]. There’s people on this game I met that I will continue to talk to, that are my type of people, that are fun. But I never felt the need to go so hard or play the game so crazy that I was going to the levels of manipulation. That seemed stupid.
You were underestimated on your season of Survivor and made it to the final three. And you were underestimated here, too—for several episodes, it seemed like no one could fathom you were a Traitor. Why do you think that is?
I’m a weirdo, and I don’t care. I say things that most people probably wouldn’t say on TV, and I’m OK with that. I’m not some proper, polished—I don’t have the kind of TV experience that makes me think before I speak. So I think people are kind of like, Who is this? And that’s just the way I roll.
But I think that’s one of the reasons people love you so much, and why you got so much attention post-Survivor and now. We don’t always see people genuinely being themselves on TV. How did that both help and hurt you on The Traitors?
Well, that’s the thing. In the episode I’m banished [during a life-size chess game in which contestants had to guess what the Traitors thought different Faithfuls’ roles in the castle were], I even say, like, “Here I am being impulsive again.” And obviously the editing of that episode makes it seem like I said nothing and just cried the whole time. But of course, I’m hard on myself, and I was trying to just keep quiet and continue to work with Danielle [as the final two Traitors left], but I was like I can’t do this anymore, I’m not having fun with this person, and it sucks. But I know that with my personality and the way I act I’m underestimated, which helped for a while, but it doesn’t mean that it doesn’t hurt my feelings when people are looking at me like, What? But even Boston Rob told me, “You did a great job, and you should be proud of yourself, Carolyn. Don’t ever change.”
Something else people don’t want you to change? Your accent.
Oh, my gosh. I really had no idea this was a thing until I started getting all these Cameo requests for me to say certain things. I’m not super active on TikTok or anything—girl, I can’t keep up with that. But it’s funny.
The entire shooting, filming, and production process looks different here than Survivor, with reshoots and long days in the castle and done-up hair, makeup, and clothing. How did you adapt to the castle?
I thought this would be way easier than Survivor. I was like Oh yay, I get to eat, I get to sleep. No. Survivor was easier. It was like being a professional actress on a movie set, with the starts and stops and cuts, and waiting. It messes with you, because you’re constantly going in and out of game mode. We filmed an episode a day, and those days were long.
Obviously, you and Danielle didn’t mesh well as Traitors together, especially toward the end. If you could re-cast the show and be a Traitor with anyone, who would it be? What would that have changed for you?
I just wanted to be with Gabby. I wanted to have fun, and we would have. There’s this perception that people who do reality TV need the attention—no. I 100 percent suffer from imposter syndrome with all this crap. I don’t feel like a celebrity. I’m just this normal-ass person living in Minnesota. I do this crazy stuff, and I go home. I don’t like the attention—I just like helping other weirdos.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Find episodes streaming on Peacock—including the finale and reunion, airing March 6.
