Celebrities target Donna Kelce on Season 4 of ‘The Traitors.’ Did she survive?
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Donna Kelce entered Season 4 as a Traitor and was banished in episode three.
- Contestants identified Kelce as a Traitor and voted her out in episode three.
- Show tasks, secret assassin twist and Alan Cumming’s hosting shaped early eliminations.
Spoiler alert: This story contains details about the first three episodes of “The Traitors” Season 4.
Donna Kelce had a strategy all ready to compete on Season 4 of the reality show “The Traitors.” Sadly, after all the pre-game hype about her participation, it didn’t work and only proved that, doggone it, nice gals (sometimes) do finish last.
Taylor Swift’s future mother-in-law and “mother of America” was near-unanimously banished in the third episode of the new season, which debuted Thursday on Peacock.
Twenty-some celebrity contestants correctly tagged Travis Kelce’s popular, unassuming, bespectacled mother as a treacherous Traitor.
The show is good guys vs. bad guys: Handpicked Traitors work to “murder” the Faithful before getting caught, a $250,000 pot at stake.
Daily team missions challenging body and brain take place in and around a gorgeous castle in Scotland, presided over by Tony Award-winning Scottish actor Alan Cumming, who has snagged two Emmys for hosting the show. (His stunning wardrobe? Still stunning.)
In the first mission, Kelce got to spend time helping her team paddle a boat across a beautiful Scottish loch. She wasn’t seen much on camera in a second mission, where contestants pulled heavy thrones on wheels through a forest to the castle in 45 minutes.
The new season began with a twist.
In a dramatic nighttime ceremony before the contestants even entered the castle, Cumming chose one to be a “secret traitor” who would provide their fellow traitors with a short list of contestants from which to choose their murder victims each night.
They wouldn’t get to know the secret assassin’s identity until further in the game.
Kelce arrived at the castle with far less TV, stage — and Olympic ice — experience as louder and bolder competitors. She’s never had to outwit, outplay, outlast.
She’s never competed on “Survivor.” Never hunted for a hunk on “Love Island.” Never starred in a movie.
She’s not a “Real Housewife” of anywhere.
Among this season’s players: Lisa Rinna (”The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills”), K-pop singer Eric Nam, Olympic figure skaters Johnny Weir and Tara Lipinksi, Monét X Change (”RuPaul’s Drag Race 10”) and pro dancer Mark Ballas from “Dancing with the Stars.”
“I’m an outlier ... I’m just a mom,” Kelce described herself in the first episode.
(She’s such a good mom, in fact, she managed to sneak in a 92% reference. Sons Travis and Jason Kelce call fans of their “New Heights” podcast “92 percenters,” referencing the success rate of quarterback sneaks.)
But Kelce’s low-key, just-Donna strategy in a castle full of prima donnas worked against her.
Success on “The Traitors” requires forming alliances, lying to people’s faces and misdirecting suspicions, none of which Kelce did in the first two episodes as she spent more time admittedly “fan-girling.”
She nearly got booted during the first roundtable vote, a close call that seemed to leave her shaken.
She drew attention to herself by not drawing attention to herself, which on “The Traitors” is a red flag.
People noticed she wasn’t talking game to anyone.
At least three players said they were afraid to even mention Kelce’s name as a possible traitor because they feared blowback from Swifties.
One was former “Bachelor” contestant and NFL player, Colton Underwood, suspected from the get-go that a woman who raised two star NFL players could indeed be “this cold-hearted killer.”
“I really love Donna. She reminds me a lot of my mom,” said Underwood, whose mother is also named Donna. “But I also want to be somebody who helps get a traitor out ... and if she is one I want to be the one to help bring her down.”
During the first vote, “Amazing Race” and “Survivor” contestant Natalie Anderson told Kelce: “You pop up on my radar. This is me speaking, not knowing you but just observing.
Said Anderson at the first roundtable gathering, where Cumming secretly tapped his chosen traitors on their shoulders: “When we all took off our blindfolds I just saw the stress on your face. The personality is just a little bit less friendly and almost like a stresser.”
“You’re going to be wasting a vote,” Kelce warned her. “I feel that sometimes I shouldn’t just barge in when there’s conversations going on. And that’s just my personality.
“Sometimes I’m way up here, sometimes I’m there. It’s kind of sad because I’m not attached to anyone else here. I’m all alone. You know, low-hanging fruit ... people that really don’t have anyone else to back them up.”
“Low-hanging fruit doesn’t mean you’re not a traitor though, Donna,” Anderson told her.
Cue the dramatic music.
In the end, Underwood cast the vote that saved Kelce from elimination when he decided that the queen of misspeaks, Porsha Williams of “The Real Housewives of Atlanta,” was a traitor.
She was not, which ticked off a lot of “Real Housewives” fans online.
The next morning at breakfast, Dorinda Medley of “The Real Housewives of New York City” apologized to Kelce for voting to banish her.
“It’s OK because we don’t know each other yet,” Kelce told her.
Kelce later told some of the other players that it “was very daunting to be up there and there’s a lot of people here that I’m fans of. I almost feel like I’m not worthy.”
“You are like the mother of America,” Kristen Kish, host of “Top Chef,” told her.
“But that’s the way I feel. I did the same thing to Paul McCartney at the Super Bowl,” Kelce said.
“Oh, humblebrag, Donna, humblebrag,” Kish laughed.
“I made it last night by the hair on my chin,” Kelce said in assessing her rocky start. “From the very beginning my strategy was just to observe, but I’m going to have to put myself out there a little bit more and make sure that I talk to people. I’m going to give it my best shot.”
The traitors next conspired to “murder” podcaster and “Survivor” player Rob Cesternino in so-called plain sight, which required the distraction of a conga line.
The next morning, when everyone heard that “Rob C” was gone, Cumming announced a second roundtable vote to take place before the day’s mission.
In pre-vote strategizing, Underwood let some of the others know he still suspected Kelce and would vote to banish her. “I’m trusting my gut. I’m going for her,” he said, sharing his suspicion of a traitor’s alliance between Kelce and comedian Ron Funches.
Kelce had mentioned that she was beginning to trust Funches because “Travis worked with Ron on a show.”
Kelce caught Underwood and others talking about her in one of the castle rooms. “I heard the shushes,” she said as she walked in.
“I tried to convince people that I’m not a traitor, but I don’t think it’s hitting,” she said in a confessional moment. “I mean, it’s stressful to hear your name. But that’s kind of when you go into attack mode. I am not ready to go home yet.”
With a few more conversations under her belt she felt better about the next vote. But it became clear very quickly that she was the target of everyone around that massive table.
“So I know people are after me,” she told the group. “If the only reason is that I didn’t have a chance to talk to all of you, I’m fangirling on every single one of you. So forgive me. But I tried today.”
Candiace Dillard Bassett from “The Real Housewives of Potomac” told her, “I will just say that is why I suspected you ... because ...”
“I wasn’t talking,” said Kelce.
“Well we talked,” said Bassett. “It just really boiled down to I felt and I still feel that you would be just such a good traitor. Because you are unassuming. You are so nice. You’re sweet. You look like you bake cookies.”
“I’m sorry ... I’m not sorry, but I do give off that type of innocent type of personality. But that’s who I am,” Kelce countered.
“I think there’s time for you to say more that protects youself,” Yam Yam Arocho, winner of “Survivor 44,” coached her. “And I don’t think you should just say, ‘I try.’”
“I just want you all to think about who is pushing my name the hardest,” Kelce said. “Just ask yourself that. I don’t know because they’re not telling me.”
“Me!” Underwood piped up. “Because my biggest regret from the last roundtable ... I changed my (vote) to Porsha. And then I was sort of kicking myself because I had to watch a faithful go home.”
“You’d be kicking yourself again today. Sorry,” Kelce said, finally unleashing some snark.
In a last-ditch effort to save herself, she told the group she suspected Rapaport to be a traitor.
“Michael I don’t think you’re as ignorant about the rules as you say you are,” Kelce told him. “I think you know them very, very well. And I think you are kinda pulling the wool over our eyes. You’re a good actor and this might be a part that you’re playing.”
Then the voting began.
Donna.
Donna.
Donna.
Down the line.
People apologized as they voted to kick her out.
Rapaport was the only one who voted for someone else, even though Kelce voted to ditch him.
Rob Rausch from “Love Island USA” cast the vote that sealed her fate. When he turned his slate around to show he had written “Donna,” Kelce clutched her chest in Hollywood despair.
Per tradition, she walked to the entrance of the room and faced her peers. Cheeks red. Smile wan. Tears at hand.
And then Cumming asked: “Are you a faithful or a traitor?”
“I know I’m the sacrificial lamb,” Kelce said. “And I know that I had a blast meeting every single one of you. And on that note I think I’m going to go,” she said as she turned, pretending to leave it at that.
But she turned back around, faced the room and announced before rushing out: “You’ve got yourself a traitor!”
The room exploded in gasps and cheers.
“She’s like America’s mother. But it doesn’t change the fact that she was a traitor,” said Nam.
Then the flashbacks began.
Cumming had told Kelce she was a traitor on the very first night.
“Are you ready to play my game?” he asked in hushed tones.
“Oh yeah,” she said.
More flashbacks showed the clandestine moment Cumming handed her a special red cloak with a hood and told her, “You are no ordinary traitor. You’re about to become my secret traitor.”
“Oh that’s, that’s devilish,” she said, grinning.
“I’m going to be this sweet mom on the side. And then at night a mischievous traitor that will be murdering people. It will be just a hoot. I can’t wait,” Kelce said that first night.
She was shown moving stealthily around the castle at night in the red cloak, carrying the short list of suggested “murder” victims for her fellow traitors — Rinna, Bassett and Rausch. They didn’t know they were working with Kelce until the shocking reveal at the roundtable.
Kelce shared in the first episode that Jason got her interested in the show, which they binge-watched during a playoff weekend. She said you get to a certain point in your life when it’s good to reinvent yourself — and that’s how she got to Scotland.
In her final moments in front of the cameras, Kelce, who turned 73 in October, let the tears flow.
“Playing a traitor was tough, but I gave it my best shot,” she said. “This has been a dream come true. Um ... these are happy tears that I get to do this at this point in my life. It’s just the joy of being in the game.”
“I love that woman,” fellow traitor and 27-year-old snake wrangler Rausch said. “She would have been such a good teammate if we could have deflected from her earlier, but it’s too late. Sorry, Donna.
“Yeah, I do. I like her a lot. I’m not joking at all.
“Is she married?”
This story was originally published January 9, 2026 at 7:36 AM.
.jpg)