Mark Ballas Reveals His ‘Traitors’ Strategy: ‘Be a Scottie Pippen’ (Exclusive)

“Extra’s” Derek Hough sat down with his best friend Mark Ballas to talk all about “The Traitors.” 

Before going on the show, Mark watched every single episode of the reality show and studied them closely.

He said, “I’m a big note maker, and I like to kind of immerse myself into the experience... I wouldn’t just watch the season, I would watch them over and over, and just something that I kind of learned, the strategy as a traitor is completely different to as a faithful.”

On the show, the players in the competition are divided into faithfuls and traitors, all with their eyes on a $250,0000 prize.

Every episode, the traitors secretly meet to pick a faithful they want to “murder,” meaning they leave the show immediately, and all the contestants also meet vote to banish those they suspect is a traitor.

While Mark is a faithful right now, he noted, “What I’ve learned is that you can’t be too quiet. You can’t be too loud, can’t lead to early, and you can’t take things personal — and you have to play the game.”

Referencing Chicago Bulls legends, Ballas emphasized, “Be Scottie Pippen, not Michael Jordan.”

He added, ‘I didn’t want to go in, like, needing the glory, you know what I mean? At the end of the day, I think what people don’t always realize is it’s actually an individual game… You have to use your skills as a person and your relationships and just hope that you make the right choice because you can’t go through the game either saying, ‘I don’t trust anyone,’ because then people are like, ‘You don’t trust me,’ and then that makes you look suspicious. At some point, you have to push your chips in on someone and hope that they’re not a traitor at the end.”

Derek and Mark have known each other since they were 10 years old, so we had to put the friendship to the test! 

Derek and Mark answered questions like who’s late most often and who’s on their phone more!