Season 3 of The Traitors just dropped, and it’s already serving up more drama than a Bravo reunion special. Front and center? A fiery showdown between Selling Sunset star Chrishell Stause and Vanderpump Rules villain Tom Sandoval. And let’s be real, no one expected these two reality TV juggernauts to play nice.
In Thursday’s premiere, Emmy-winning host Alan Cumming welcomed a fresh crop of fame-hungry contestants to the murder mystery-style competition. Among them: Chrishell, Tom, and a ragtag group of celebs ready to out-scheme each other for glory.
The game kicked off with the iconic blindfolded roundtable, where Cumming handpicked this season’s “traitors” in secret. While the audience gets the inside scoop, the players are left spinning in a whirlwind of paranoia—and Tom, true to form, wasted no time stirring the pot.
The blindfolds barely hit the table before Sandoval was in full sleuth mode, mad-dogging his fellow contestants like a soap opera detective on speed. His strategy? Zero in on anyone who seemed “off,” which, naturally, included Chrishell.
The Vanderpump bad boy started planting seeds of doubt faster than Lisa Vanderpump buys a new Pomeranian, whispering to anyone who’d listen that Chrishell was the mole.
Sure, Tom also threw shade at Big Brother alum Danielle Reyes—correctly pegging her as a traitor, by the way—but his obsession with Chrishell felt personal. Enter Zac Efron’s brother Dylan, who quickly tipped Chrishell off to Tom’s backdoor smear campaign. Standing alongside Total Divas star Nikki Garcia, Dylan laid it all out: Tom was out here painting Chrishell as a Benedict Arnold in designer heels.
Chrishell, never one to back down, came out swinging. “If the ship’s burning, he’s coming down with me,” she vowed to Nikki and Dylan, turning the tables on Sandoval with the precision of a chess master.
The animosity between Chrishell and Tom doesn’t exist in a vacuum. For those living under a reality TV rock, Tom earned his villain crown in 2023 when news broke of his affair with Raquel Leviss, the younger friend of his then-girlfriend Ariana Madix. The fallout from that scandal—dubbed “Scandoval”—shook Bravo fans to their core, sending Ariana to Love Island US and Tom scrambling to salvage his reputation.
Now, on The Traitors, Tom’s paranoia and penchant for sabotage seem to be painting a target on his back. Meanwhile, Chrishell, with her Selling Sunset finesse, is proving she’s no damsel in distress. As the competition heats up, it’s clear these two are locked in a battle for reality TV supremacy—and honestly, we’re here for it.
Stay tuned: this season of The Traitors is shaping up to be a glorious trainwreck, and with Sandoval and Stause at the helm, it’s only a matter of time before someone goes down in flames. Pass the popcorn.
Last modified: January 13, 2025
