Television presenter Claudia Winkleman has given insight into how traitors are selected for The Traitors, and its not what we expected. The third season of The Traitors is currently airing on BBC One, returning once again after incredible rating and a dedicated audience.
Taking place in an extravagant castle in the Scottish Highlands, contestants complete tasks and banish players in order to have a chance to win a cash prize of up to £120,000. Faithfuls work to complete challenges and stay safe from murder, whilst the traitors try to sabotage the faithfuls’ efforts, avoid banishment, and complete murders each night.
Faithfuls must banish all traitors by the final episode if they want to win the cash prize, if just one traitor remains, they get to take home every penny. The stakes are even higher this year, with Winkleman announcing that in the final, it will be not be revealed whether players banished a faithful or a traitor, meaning players will have to “rely on their instinct even more”.
She added that trust is “more vital than ever”. But for viewers the question always arises – would you want to be a faithful or a traitor? And if you were hoping your fate would be in the hands of the host, you’d be wrong.
At the beginning of each series, we see snippets of Winkleman speaking to the contestants, asking them whether they want to be a faithful or a traitor and why. Shortly afterwards, the contestants sit at the roundtable with blindfolds, as Claudia discreetly taps the traitors’ shoulders.
It’s the first exciting moment of every season as the audience uncovers who the traitors will be, but its now been revealed that the process isn’t as simple as we once believed. Speaking to the Radio Times, Winkleman said “It’s not down to me. There’s a group of us, including the brilliant producers and casting team.
“We go into a room and don’t leave until they’re chosen. If someone asks not to be a Traitor, they wouldn’t be picked.”
She also shared how she would feel being a contestant in the game. As host she gets to watch how the game works from the outside and said even she has found the most recent series quite emotional, sharing she “couldn’t stand someone leaving” and cried after their banishment.
Speaking about how she would play the game, the 53-year-old said, “I think I’d prefer to be a faithful, but I genuinely have no idea if someone is lying to me. My 18-year-old told me she’d done all her homework for years.”