A new limited-time partnership between First Watch and NBC's Emmy Award-winning competition series The Traitors: New Blood brings themed menu items, app-driven scavenger hunts, and a national sweepstakes to the daytime dining chain's more than 660 restaurants across 33 states, effective September 15.
The Menu & Experience
The collaboration introduces a slate of Traitors-branded breakfast items — including the Traitor Tri-Fecta, Bacon of Betrayal, and Tres Leches Treachery — layered onto First Watch's rotating seasonal menu. Beyond the plate, guests can engage with bi-weekly interactive missions through the First Watch app, completing challenges inspired by the show's psychological gameplay to unlock exclusive rewards. The dual approach of physical menu innovation plus digital engagement reflects a broader restaurant loyalty and app-activation strategy that chains have increasingly leaned on to drive repeat visits.
"As the nation's leading Daytime Dining restaurant, we know breakfast is more than a meal. It's a moment that brings people together," said Matt Eisenacher, Chief Brand Officer at First Watch. "Every morning on The Traitors: New Blood, contestants gather around the table to uncover surprises, share suspicions and react to the unexpected. We loved the idea of bringing some of that energy and intrigue to breakfast lovers in our restaurants nationwide."
Operator Takeaway
For foodservice operators watching how casual and fast-casual brands extend their reach, this activation is notable for combining three distinct consumer touchpoints: a limited-time menu, a mobile-app mission layer, and a sweepstakes offering Breakfast for a Year at First Watch plus official Traitors merchandise. That bundling keeps the promotion alive beyond a single visit, encouraging repeat traffic throughout the fall season while the NBC show airs.
The Traitors format — set in a Scottish Highlands castle and centered on a prize fund worth up to $250,000 — has built a devoted audience across its Peacock iterations, and NBC's new civilian version, The Traitors: New Blood, expands that viewership to broadcast. Aligning a restaurant brand with a show that revolves around communal meals and morning gatherings is a natural fit: in the series, contestants convene each morning at the breakfast table to deliberate, accuse, and strategize, mirroring the social ritual First Watch has built its brand around.
Full details on the partnership, including how to participate in missions and enter the sweepstakes, are available at firstwatch.com/traitors. The activation is one of the more layered restaurant marketing and LTO strategies seen in the daytime dining segment this year, using entertainment IP to add narrative depth to what might otherwise be a standard seasonal menu refresh.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
