DR has published an analysis of TV 2’s game show “Forræder” ahead of the finale of the fourth Danish season, asking whether viewers at home would really be better at spotting the traitors than the contestants are.
The piece, published Saturday by DR, looks at the mechanisms that play out around the show’s round table. DR writes that the fourth Danish season is now airing and that the finale is set to be broadcast Friday.
In the format, participants are divided into loyal players and traitors. The loyal players must identify and vote out the traitors, while the traitors hide their roles and try to make the group vote wrongly. DR describes the program as one of TV 2‘s major entertainment titles.
One of the viewers will be culture researcher and author Torben Sangild. He told DR that it would be hubris to claim that people at home would do better than the contestants. Sangild has watched versions from Australia, New Zealand, the United States, Canada, Britain, Norway, Ireland and Denmark.
Suspicion that turns into a train
According to Sangild, the loyal players repeatedly become very certain about theories built on thin evidence. A suspicion can spread quickly, in what the show calls a “train,” where one person points and others follow. He told DR that this is not always conviction, but can be tactical, since going against the group makes a player stand out.
As stated by Sangild, players must balance avoiding attention with not blending into the wallpaper entirely. Traitors face the same problem, since they need to look loyal. He said they must go along with theories slightly without being offensive or leading them.
Sangild also described a pattern across seasons. Traitors are typically excited at first and surprised at how easy lying is, but the role begins to wear on them. In an article in Weekendavisen, he explains this using the concept of cognitive dissonance, the discomfort of holding contradictory thoughts or actions.
Something similar was described by Sarah Grünewald, who told TV 2 in April 2025 that a personal conversation with Thomas Korsgaard in an earlier season left her with a bad conscience. For her, lying about the game felt different from playing a role in a private talk.
Sangild has himself played the deduction board games “Blood on the Clocktower” and “Varulv.” He told DR that it would be self-overestimation to claim he would be better than the average loyal player at identifying a traitor.
DR notes that the season has again drawn a large audience, pointing to Nielsen‘s rankings of the most watched programs in Denmark. The show sits alongside other high profile Danish reality formats in the channel’s lineup.
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