The Traitors Producers Explained What Made Dan Gheesling The Worst Traitor Ever

Since The Traitors has millions of fans, there were loads of people who were excited when the third season's cast was announced. After all, even though The Traitors has earned Alan Cumming new fans who are interested in how hard hosting the show is, the players can make or break a season. That is what makes it such a big deal that the reality show has featured many memorable players, including former Survivor players, some of whom flopped in Alan's castle.

Fortunately for Big Brother fans, The Traitors has also cast several players from that show, including Dan Gheesling. However, Dan arguably became the worst Traitor in the show's history despite being regarded by some as the best Big Brother player ever. For any of Dan's fans who want to know what went so horribly wrong, The Traitors' producer offered an interesting explanation.

What Made Dan Gheesling Such A Bad Traitor, According To The Traitors' Producer

When fans sit down to watch an episode of The Traitors, they rarely think about how many people play a role in the show being filmed. Instead, viewers focus on what is happening on their TVs and ignore the large group of people who work on the show behind-the-scenes.

There are many reasons why that makes sense, including the fact that the people who work on reality shows rarely speak publicly. However, The Traitors' producer Sam Rees-Jones spoke to Entertainment Weekly in February 2024.

During that interview, Sam revealed several fascinating facts. One of the most interesting parts of that interview is that The Traitors' producer explained what made Dan Gheesling such a horrible traitor.

Since Sam had such a unique vantage point on the game, it is fascinating to get a hint at his perspective of Dan.

When Entertainment Weekly asked him about the Big Brother legend, Sam immediately brought up how Dan failed to adapt after he was called out early on.

You could argue he didn't adapt quickly enough. He got heat early on from Larsa.

To Sam's credit, he wasn't overly critical of Dan.

Immediately after Sam stated that Dan failed to adapt, he defended the Big Brother legend.

Dan Gheesling is a two-time Big Brother player who is widely considered to be one of the best players in the show's history. The winner of Big Brother 10, Dan returned for Big Brother 14, and became that season's runner-up. The fact that Dan lasted that long during Big Brother 14 despite being a former winner was incredibly impressive.

As Sam explained to the outlet, it is very difficult to recover in The Traitors after suspicion falls upon you.

"It's hard in that castle when you have heat. It's quite hard to shift that. It's such an intense environment — it's a pressure cooker in there and things can build quickly in that castle as far as suspicion and heat, so it's a very difficult thing to maneuver out of."

A lot of what Sam had to say about how Dan played during The Traitors was amazing. However, one of the most interesting aspects of Sam's comments wasn't what he actually had to say. Instead, one of the most telling parts of what Sam said about Dan was what question he was responding to.

In March 2024, Collider published a ranking of the best players from the first two seasons of the American version of The Traitors. That list named Cirie Fields as the best The Traitors player from the first two seasons. The list also named Kate Chastain, Chris “CT” Tamburello, Peter Weber, and Trishelle Cannatella as the other top five players from The Traitors' first two seasons.

When Sam stated that Dan failed to adapt, he wasn't answering a question about why he failed as a Traitor. Instead, Sam was solely asked about his reaction to how Dan played the game and how he got found out so early. "What was your reaction to watching Dan’s gameplay and how he ultimately got found out by the Faithfuls so early?"

That question didn't judge Dan as the one who messed up. Sam did.

As Sam's interview continued, he was asked about Dan trying to throw Phaedra Parks under the bus to survive longer in the game.

Putting aside whether Dan's decision to point a finger at Phaedra was smart, Entertainment Weekly's reporter wanted to know something else.

Like all reality shows, The Traitors has rules to make sure that things are fair for the players. One of those rules is that people who are Traitors aren't allowed to expose each other. As a result, Entertainment Weekly's interviewer wanted to know if Dan was even allowed to do what he did to Phaedra.

As Sam explained, there was a specific reason why Dan was allowed to accuse Phaedra, according to the show's rules.

"As a Traitor, you are absolutely allowed to call out another Traitor as long as you are under the guise of being a Faithful. Dan was acting as a Faithful, so he could call out another Traitor. What you can't do is, when Dan was banished, he absolutely couldn't have gone, 'Yeah, I'm a Traitor, and Phaedra is one too.' But under the guise of a Faithful, he played within the rules."

Dan Gheesling Admitting That His The Traitors Flop Was A Humbling Experience

Before Dan Gheesling appeared on The Traitors, he was considered to be one of the best Big Brother players ever. The fact that Dan flopped on The Traitors shouldn't change his Big Brother reputation. However, there were a lot of people who were shocked that Dan did so poorly on The Traitors. Based on what he has said in the past, Dan was also very surprised by how poorly he did.

After fans saw Dan get banished from The Traitors' castle, he was interviewed by Vulture in February 2024. During that interview, Dan admitted that he expected to win and failing to do so was "humbling."

It was a very humbling experience. I entered this thing like, 'I’m winning this thing, or it’s a complete failure.'

Dan went on to explain to Vulture that after he failed to win, he realized that he'd underestimated most of the other players.

"I really went in there being highly concerned with Parvati, Sandra, and Janelle — people who have played these games. Not being concerned for the other people was foolish of me. I didn’t look at ’em in that light because they’re on television to be themselves, not to maneuver and play games."

These comments from Dan should be studied by any future Big Brother or Survivor players who compete in The Traitors.