North St. Paul native and “Survivor” veteran Carolyn Wiger is one of 21 reality television stars competing for a cash prize of up to $250,000 on the third season of “The Traitors,” which debuts Thursday night on Peacock.

The streaming service will air the first three episodes starting at 8 p.m., with new episodes following each Thursday. NBC plans to broadcast the show as well, starting with the first two episodes at 7 p.m. Jan. 20.

Based on a show from the Netherlands, “The Traitors” has blossomed into a huge hit for Peacock. The show’s second season became the No. 1 unscripted series in the U.S. across all streaming platforms when it launched last January, according to Nielsen. The show’s first season won an Emmy Award for outstanding casting for a reality program, while the second picked up two more for outstanding reality competition program and outstanding host for actor Alan Cumming, who broke RuPaul’s eight-year streak in that category.

Here’s what you need to know about “The Traitors.”

How does “The Traitors” work?

Wiger and her fellow contestants move into a castle in the Scottish Highlands and compete in a series of challenges that earn money to fund the grand prize. On the first day, Cumming secretly selects two or more of them to become Traitors, while the rest are known as Faithfuls.

Each night, the entire group meets to banish one player from the game, with the Faithfuls aiming to uncover the Traitors and send them home. Later in the evening, the Traitors meet and choose the player they want to “murder” and eliminate from the proceedings.

Once the contestants are whittled down to the final four, the players choose whether they want to vote to banish again or end the game. The prize pot is split between the remaining contestants, unless one of them is a Traitor. In that case, the Traitor takes the entire cash prize.

While physical prowess is handy in the group challenges, “The Traitors” is ultimately a psychological game about deception. It’s proven to be a hit with audiences worldwide, with more than two dozen countries airing versions of it in recent years. Peacock is also streaming takes on “The Traitors” from the U.K., Australia and New Zealand. (Despite some howlingly awful gameplay from the Faithfuls, the second Australian season is by far the most entertaining of any streaming on Peacock.)

The rest of the cast includes fellow “Survivor” vets (“Boston” Rob Mariano, Tony Vlachos, Jeremy Collins), “Real Housewives” stars (Dorinda Medley, Chanel Ayan, Dolores Catania, Robyn Dixon), Bravolebrities (Tom Sandoval, Ciara Miller, Chrishell Stause) and various other random semi-famous folks (Zac Efron’s brother Dylan, Britney Spears’ ex Sam Asghari, gay British royal Lord Ivar Mountbatten).

Who is Carolyn Wiger?

An undated promotional image, circa Jan. 2025, of Minnesotan/”Survivor” vet Carolyn Wiger, who is one of the contestants on season three of “The Traitors.” (Courtesy of Peacock)

The daughter of former state Sen. Chuck Wiger, the 37-year-old Wiger was born in North St. Paul and now lives in Hugo, where she works in substance recovery. She was inspired to pursue that career after becoming sober herself at the age of 22.

Wiger placed third on “Survivor 44,” which aired in the spring of 2023. She quickly became a fan favorite thanks to her anything-goes personality and often chaotic behavior as well as her tight alliance with engineering student Carson Garrett and that season’s winner Yamil “Yam Yam” Arocho.

Australian pop star Sia is a high-profile admirer of Wiger. The vocalist is a huge “Survivor” fan who, over the past eight years, has given out more than $1 million of her own money to 18 of her favorite contestants from the show. Wiger is one of seven Sia gifted $100,000.

Does Wiger have a shot at winning?

Here’s how she described her approach to playing “Survivor” in a May 2023 interview with the Pioneer Press: “Honestly, watching I always felt like, oh my gosh, there’s no way I could do this. I’m too weird. As I got more confident with myself, (I thought) I can do this. I had this mission to go out there and be myself, because I didn’t see enough people like me. You can play this game. There is no one way of playing.”

Indeed, there is also no one way of playing “The Traitors,” but attention to detail, the ability to size up competitors and old fashioned good luck are all important traits. A Traitor won the first season, while a pair of Faithfuls split the prize in the second.

Her time on “Survivor” showed Wiger as somewhat of a wild card on her own, but a devoted ally in her alliance, which could be the key for her to make it far on “The Traitors.”

As Wiger says in the season three trailer for the show: “I can handle anything this game can throw at me.”

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