The series, first announced in May this year, has seen further details on the series released by the Beeb today. Strictly Come Dancing’s Claudia Winkleman is the host of The Traitors, an unscripted competition series built on strategy and suspicion.
Claudia Winkleman:
“The Traitors is in essence a psychological reality show where players must decide who they can trust. 22 people arrive at a beautiful castle. They’re from all walks of life. They’re all ages. They bond. They make friends. And they spend their days working together as a team to complete spectacular physical and mental missions to add money to a prize pot, that is worth up to £120,000.
“But not all is as it seems, because hidden amongst the group are some Traitors – players I secretly selected at the start of the game which the viewers will see for themselves. Everyone else is known as ‘The Faithful’ and none of The Faithful know who The Traitors are.”
In this psychological competition, Claudia Winkleman will greet 22 strangers as they arrive at a beautiful castle in the Scottish Highlands to play the ultimate game of detection, backstabbing and trust, in the hope of winning up to £120,000. But hidden amongst them are The Traitors whose job is to secretly murder a player every night, without getting caught.
At the start of the game, a small number of players are secretly selected by Claudia to be traitors. The rest of the players are known as ‘The Faithful’ and none of The Faithful know who The Traitors are. Players are eliminated in one of two ways; each night, The Traitors meet in secret and decide to ‘murder’ one of The Faithful and next morning when the group meet for breakfast the ‘murdered’ player does not appear. Then, later in the day, all the players meet at the ‘Round Table’ and decide to ‘banish’ a player they suspect of being a Traitor. Whomever they pick will then reveal if they are indeed a Traitor or a Faithful. At the end of the game, the few remaining players will share the prize pot if they are all Faithful, but if there is still a Traitor among them, the Traitor takes all the prize money.
It’s up to the others, the Faithfuls, to try to detect who the traitors are and banish them from the game before they become their next victims. For the lucky ones who survive to the end, they have the chance of winning that life-changing cash.
Claudia Winkleman:
“At the end of the game, only the players that who have survived all these ‘Murders’ and ‘Banishments’ will win the prize pot. If they are all Faithful they will share it, but and this is a big but, if there are still Traitors secretly lurking amongst them, then they will win it all! It’s gripping!
“It sounds totally straightforward but it’s not because they all start second-guessing everybody and don’t know whether they can trust their best friend. They’re not sure how a Traitor would behave or how a Faithful would behave and it messes with your head as we say and it’s gripping to watch.”
