The Traitors: New Blood Release Time and Episode Schedule (2026): Every Thursday Date and When Peacock Gets It

NBC hands The Traitors to people who do not have publicists tonight. The Traitors: New Blood opens with a two-hour block at 8 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. CT on Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026, and the 22 players in Alan Cumming's castle this season are civilians — no reality-show resumes, no hosts of anything.

The streaming half is a day behind. Peacock carries the season, but episodes land there the morning after they air, so tonight's two hours are a Friday watch if you skip the broadcast.

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What time does The Traitors: New Blood start tonight?

That is the ordinary NBC "8/7c" pattern: East and West coasts get their own feeds at 8 p.m. local, and the middle of the country runs an hour earlier. Alaska and Hawaii stations vary, so check your local NBC listing rather than the network clock.

Two episodes run back to back — "A New Dawn Is Rising" and "I'm a Sweaty Boy" — which is why the premiere eats the full 8-to-10 block instead of an hour.

The timing is not an accident. The franchise won outstanding reality competition program at the Emmys on Monday night, two days before NBC put a new version of it on broadcast. Our rundown of the week has the rest of what the ceremony pushed onto schedules.

When does each episode reach Peacock?

The next day. NBC's own how-to-watch page says episodes "stream the next day on Peacock," which puts the premiere there Friday, Sept. 18.

One caveat worth naming: at least one syndicated preview said the show streams on Peacock simultaneously with the broadcast. NBC's page says next day, and next day is what we would plan around. No streaming hour has been announced, so treat Friday morning as the safe assumption, not a promise.

You need a paid Peacock tier for it either way — the free tier does not carry NBC's primetime. Current tier pricing sits in our plans and prices list, and Peacock's other arrivals this month are in the Hulu, Max and Peacock edition.

How many episodes is The Traitors: New Blood, and when is the finale?

NBC ordered 12 episodes and set the finale for Thursday, Nov. 19. The first two Thursdays are doubles; after that it is one episode a week.

Everything from episode 5 down is our arithmetic, not a published list. NBC announced three things — a 12-episode order, doubles on Sept. 17 and Sept. 24, and a Nov. 19 finale — and only one weekly pattern satisfies all three. It also settles a disagreement in the preview coverage: some write-ups say the single-episode weeks begin Oct. 1 and one says Oct. 8. Oct. 8 would need 13 episodes to reach Nov. 19, so Oct. 1 it is.

Ten weeks of one episode at a time is the opposite of what Netflix did to this same week, dumping two complete seasons on Thursday morning. The two release habits, and why networks keep choosing between them, are laid out in our weekly-versus-binge guide.

Who is in the cast?

Twenty-two people, none of them famous. NBC's cast announcement describes them as everyday Americans picked from a nationwide search — the network's cast page puts the applicant pool above 80,000, while an earlier NBC Insider piece said more than 60,000. Either number makes this the most selective casting in the franchise's American run.

Alan Cumming hosts, in the tweed and the theatrical grief, with his dog Lala along. The prize is worth up to $250,000, smaller than the celebrity edition's pot and split the same brutal way: the Faithfuls only take it if they finish having banished every Traitor.

Nobody arrives with a stylist. That matters more on this show than it sounds — the castle looks are the players' own clothes, which is a different system from the one that dresses scripted casts, as Screen Style On Air explains.

Is this the same show as the celebrity version?

Same castle, same host, same game, different door. New Blood is NBC's civilian edition and it airs on broadcast first; the celebrity seasons are Peacock originals that drop on streaming. Think of New Blood as the version where you have no idea who anyone is, which is roughly the point.

Frequently asked questions

Is The Traitors: New Blood on Netflix? No. It airs on NBC and streams on Peacock. Netflix's competition slot this month is Physical 100: Mexico.

Can I watch it live without cable? Yes, through a live-TV service that carries your local NBC station, or on Peacock's live NBC feed with a paid tier. The on-demand copy still arrives Friday.

What else premieres this week? Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story hit Netflix at 3 a.m. Thursday, MobLand season 2 starts Friday on Paramount+, and JAŸ-Z in 8 opens Friday night on HBO Max. Every title we have timed sits in the release times hub.

Sources

• NBC Insider — how to watch The Traitors: New Blood
• NBC Insider — premiere date, cast and details
• NBC Insider — the official cast
• DIRECTV Insider — episode 1 watch guide
• The Mac Observer — release date and NBC premiere schedule
• Peacock — The Traitors

By the Streaming On Air desk · Updated Sept. 17, 5:01 a.m. ET