Madeline Kostopulos is a 26-year-old construction manager from San Diego, California, who competed on NBC’s The Traitors: New Blood, the franchise’s first all-civilian U.S. season. She entered the castle as a Faithful, and her run ended almost immediately: a misunderstood comment about the season’s first murder turned into an accusation that got her banished at the Episode 2 Round Table.
The twist is that Madeline was telling the truth the whole time. She really was a Faithful, and the group voted her out anyway.
Quick Facts
| Fact | Details |
|---|---|
| Full name | Madeline Kostopulos |
| Age | 26 |
| Hometown | San Diego, California |
| Profession | Construction manager |
| Show | The Traitors: New Blood |
| Role | Faithful |
| Outcome | First contestant banished |
| First appearance | Season premiere |
| Superlative | “Most Likely to Make Too Many Jokes” |
Who Is Madeline Kostopulos?
Madeline Kostopulos is a 26-year-old construction manager from San Diego, California, and a civilian contestant on The Traitors: New Blood. She entered the game as a Faithful, hoping to rely on her personality, intuition and social instincts to identify the Traitors before they identified her.
That plan didn’t get much time to play out. Madeline became the first contestant banished from the season, eliminated at the Episode 2 Round Table after a conversation about the game’s first murder was interpreted very differently by two people who were both standing in the same room.
Madeline Kostopulos’ Construction Manager Career
Madeline’s official occupation is construction manager, a detail confirmed through her cast profile. Beyond that title, her employer, specific projects, seniority and professional history aren’t publicly documented, so none of those details should be assumed or filled in from general assumptions about what construction managers typically do.
What’s clear is that her career gave her a professional identity distinct from the entertainment-adjacent backgrounds many contestants bring into the castle, and it’s not something she leaned on heavily in her pre-season interviews, which focused far more on her personality than her profession.
What Was Madeline’s Personality Like?
Madeline described herself, before the season began, as someone with “an unlimited amount of luck,” “great intuition” and “a great personality.” She called herself a great team player and a good leader, framing leadership less around authority and more around keeping the group light and making sure everyone had fun.
She connected that lightness to staying in touch with her “childlike side” and being present with the people around her. Her self-declared cast superlative, “Most Likely to Make Too Many Jokes,” lines up directly with that self-description: someone who leans on humor as a way of connecting with people and setting the tone in a room.
Madeline Wanted to Be a Faithful
Before the season began, Madeline said she preferred playing as a Faithful because she wanted to “sniff out the Traitors.” Her stated strategy was built around integrity: she said she planned to “maintain my integrity and be who I am,” relying on intuition and her existing social strengths rather than adopting a dramatically different persona for the game.
She got the role she wanted. She was, in fact, a Faithful. But the game moved fast enough that her stated plan to build trust through authenticity barely had a chance to unfold before she found herself at the center of the season’s first major suspicion.
Madeline’s Journal and Her Approach to the Game
Madeline said she keeps a journal and writes in it often, framing the habit around the idea that people can lie even to themselves. She said that if she’d been made a Traitor, she planned to write in her diary every day as though she were a Faithful, trying to convince herself of the role so she wouldn’t have to consciously perform it.
That plan was hypothetical. Madeline was a Faithful, so the journal-as-deception strategy never came into play. It remains a useful window into how she thought about the game before entering it, someone who took the psychological demands of deception seriously enough to plan around them, even in a role she never had to fill.
Madeline and Victor Vollbrechthausen
Madeline and Victor Vollbrechthausen formed an early, mutually acknowledged connection inside the castle. Madeline described it as an “instant connection,” said the chemistry was “definitely mutual,” and characterized the two of them as funny, loud people who enjoyed running around the castle “like puppy dogs.”
That connection became directly relevant to her elimination. Victor was present for the conversation that later became the center of Kriste Lewis’s accusation, which put him in the position of corroborating Madeline’s account of what she’d actually said. He defended her at the Round Table, telling the group he hadn’t heard anything resembling a confession. That defense came at a cost: Victor was already facing scrutiny of his own after aggressively pursuing a shield during the opening mission, so vouching for Madeline added more attention to an already vulnerable position.
In her exit interview with Parade, Madeline thanked Victor for defending her at cost to himself. Since filming, she’s described the two of them as “good friends,” while declining to characterize the relationship further, saying only, “I’m just gonna let the people wonder.” There’s no public confirmation of a romantic relationship, a formal alliance, or any specific coordination between them beyond both independently pursuing shields in the same mission. The most accurate framing is that they acknowledged mutual attraction and an early connection, and remain good friends afterward.
Why Was Madeline Kostopulos Banished?
The sequence that ended Madeline’s run started right after Kim Daily was murdered. Madeline had a conversation with Victor and Kriste Lewis about the murder. According to Madeline’s own account, and broadcast subtitles referenced in reporting, what she actually said was something like, “I’d feel like s–t picking Kim,” meaning she would feel awful if she’d had to choose Kim as the murder victim herself.
Kriste heard it differently, interpreting the comment as an admission along the lines of “I shouldn’t have picked Kim,” which she took as evidence that Madeline had been involved in selecting Kim for elimination. Madeline told Parade she had “zero idea” Kriste was spreading the claim before the Round Table, saying she hadn’t realized Kriste had understood the comment that way or that it was already circulating among the group. She’s described herself as blindsided by how quickly it became the center of the conversation.
At the Round Table, Madeline told the group she’d been misheard, maintained that she was a Faithful, and asked the group not to waste a vote on her. In her exit interview with Parade, she said she first tried de-escalation (“Hey, I forgive you… I think you must have misheard me. Sometimes I mumble when I speak”), but when the table kept dogpiling, she switched to “I didn’t say that, and I’m sticking with myself.”
A separate, secondary source of suspicion came from the first mission’s shield competition. Madeline, Victor and Abby Lee each earned a shield, and Madeline has said she claimed the third one after waiting while other contestants declined to go for it, with about eight minutes left in the mission. Michael Foote raised questions about Madeline, Victor and Abby’s pursuit of shields at the Round Table, and Madeline has said she felt her explanation wasn’t accepted or corroborated by the rest of the group. The available reporting supports treating the shield issue as a secondary factor that added to suspicion around her, not as the decisive reason for her banishment. Kriste’s interpretation of the Kim Daily comment was the main pivot.
The group ultimately voted Madeline out, 13 votes to 7 for Victor and 1 for Kriste. She revealed in the Circle of Truth that she was a Faithful, telling the group, “Kriste is a liar. I never said that.”
She was the first player banished from New Blood, voted out with 13 of 21 votes at the first Round Table. Kriste Lewis accused Madeline of admitting she was a Traitor and saying ‘I felt bad about picking Kim.’ Madeline had actually said she would feel bad about picking Kim, telling Kim and Victor ‘I’d feel like s— picking Kim.’
Madeline vs. Kriste Lewis
Kriste Lewis’s suspicion of Madeline began entirely with the disputed comment about Kim Daily’s murder, not with any independent evidence that Madeline was a Traitor. Kriste was adamant that she’d heard something close to a confession. Madeline maintained the comment was conditional, “I’d feel,” not an admission, and said it had simply been misheard.
Madeline has said that she and Kriste had been “cool” before the conflict, and that Kriste wasn’t an active listener once the accusation started, describing the experience afterward as relentless. She’s also said she felt “heard, seen, and vindicated” once the episode actually aired, since the broadcast made the real exchange audible to viewers for the first time. At the same time, Madeline has been clear that she doesn’t want viewers directing hostility at Kriste or anyone else in the cast, telling Parade, “I love everyone on the show. I’m not promoting any hate,” and describing the environment as high-pressure for everyone involved.
It’s fair to report that Madeline believes Kriste’s mishearing of her comment caused the banishment. It would be less fair to characterize Madeline as pursuing an ongoing feud; she’s specifically pushed back against that framing.
What Madeline’s Elimination Says About Her Game
Madeline’s stated plan going into the season centered on being genuine, keeping the atmosphere light, relying on intuition, and leading through personality rather than strategy. What actually happened moved much faster than that plan could account for: an ambiguous comment became a specific accusation, other players accepted the premise, and by the time Madeline could mount a full defense, the group had already largely made up its mind.
That’s not evidence that Madeline played poorly. Her first-round exit illustrates something more specific to this kind of game: a Faithful can become a target extremely quickly when an ambiguous statement gets interpreted as evidence of Traitor knowledge, and a reasonable defense doesn’t always overcome group momentum once enough people accept an initial premise.
Madeline’s “Most Likely to Make Too Many Jokes” Superlative
Madeline’s self-declared superlative fits cleanly with how she described herself before the season: someone who uses humor to connect with people and keep things light. Her connection with Victor, built around shared energy and playfulness, is consistent with that self-image, and her account of the Round Table suggests she tried to bring some of that same lightness into her own defense before the conversation turned more serious.
What Happened to Madeline Kostopulos on The Traitors?
Madeline Kostopulos was the first contestant banished from The Traitors: New Blood. She was a Faithful, and she was eliminated at the Episode 2 Round Table after Kriste Lewis interpreted a comment Madeline made about Kim Daily’s murder as evidence against her. Madeline denied the accusation and was supported by Victor Vollbrechthausen, but the majority voted her out anyway, 13 votes to 7 to 1.
Where Madeline Kostopulos Stands Now
Madeline is no longer competing on The Traitors: New Blood. Since her elimination, she’s spoken publicly about the experience, describing herself as blindsided by Kriste’s interpretation of her comment, grateful for Victor’s willingness to defend her despite the risk to his own position, and ultimately vindicated once the broadcast let viewers hear the actual exchange for themselves.
In her exit interview with Parade, Madeline said she already suspected Tomica Adams: “Tomica was singing and dancing right after the Round Table, so I guessed her immediately… ‘She is way too chipper for my liking.'” She added that Victor shared that same suspicion. That’s Madeline’s own post-show read on the game, not independently confirmed evidence of anything about Tomica’s role.
Madeline has described her relationship with Victor since filming as a good friendship, while declining to elaborate further. No public source confirms a romantic relationship between them.
Madeline was the season’s second elimination. Episode 7 aired October 22, 2026; Episode 8 airs October 29 on NBC.
Madeline Kostopulos’ Journey
Madeline Kostopulos arrived at the castle as a Faithful and quickly became one of its most visible personalities, striking up a flirty and mutual connection with fellow Faithful Victor Vollbrechthausen. In the first mission she waited until the final minutes before claiming a Shield, a move that drew early criticism. But an offhand comment sealed her fate. After Kim Daily’s murder was revealed, Madeline told Victor and Kriste Lewis that she would feel awful picking Kim. Kriste misheard the remark as a confession and told the castle that Madeline had admitted to choosing Kim. At the surprise Episode 2 Round Table, held immediately after breakfast, Kriste insisted ‘I know what I heard’ and called Madeline and Victor ‘bald-faced lying.’ Despite Victor’s defense, the table piled on: Madeline was banished 13-7-1 and revealed herself as a Faithful with the parting shot, ‘Kriste is a liar. I never said that.’
| Episode | What happened |
|---|---|
| 1 | Entered as a Faithful; bonded with Victor Vollbrechthausen; grabbed a Shield late in the first mission; reacted to Kim’s murder with the misheard “picking Kim” comment. |
| 2 | Banished 13-7-1 at the surprise post-breakfast Round Table after Kriste’s accusation; revealed as a Faithful. |
Madeline’s short run played out alongside a wider cast that includes fellow contestants such as Tomica Adams and Arisa Thomas; Abby Lee also earned a shield in the first mission, and Michael Foote raised questions about the shield pursuit at the Round Table. See the season guide for The Traitors: New Blood for the full cast.
Frequently Asked Questions
How old is Madeline Kostopulos?
Madeline Kostopulos is 26 years old.
Where is Madeline Kostopulos from?
She’s from San Diego, California.
What does Madeline Kostopulos do for a living?
She works as a construction manager.
Is Madeline Kostopulos a construction manager?
Yes, that’s her publicly confirmed occupation, though further career details like her employer or specific projects aren’t documented.
Was Madeline Kostopulos a Traitor or Faithful?
She was a Faithful. Her banishment was based on a misunderstanding, not on any actual involvement with the Traitors.
Why was Madeline Kostopulos eliminated from The Traitors?
Kriste Lewis interpreted a comment Madeline made about Kim Daily’s murder as an admission of involvement. Madeline denied it, but the group voted her out 13 to 7 to 1 at the Episode 2 Round Table.
What happened between Madeline Kostopulos and Kriste Lewis?
Kriste believed Madeline had confessed to picking Kim Daily for murder based on a misheard comment. Madeline maintained she’d said something conditional, not a confession, and was ultimately proven right when she was revealed as a Faithful.
What was the relationship between Madeline Kostopulos and Victor Vollbrechthausen?
The two formed an early, mutually acknowledged connection in the castle. Victor defended Madeline at the Round Table, and she’s since described their relationship as a good friendship.
Is Madeline Kostopulos still on The Traitors: New Blood?
No. She was the first contestant banished, eliminated at the Episode 2 Round Table.
What did Madeline Kostopulos say about her strategy?
She said she planned to stay genuine, maintain her integrity, and rely on intuition and personality rather than adopting a different persona for the game.
