28 December 2023 , 15:14
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While The Traitors has proved itself to be a success among viewers, host Claudia Winkleman has revealed that there is a key difference to other reality TV shows.
The 51 year old presenter, who admits to feeling nervous and "weird" about the upcoming series, says that unlike other reality shows, those who apply to be on The Traitors are not interested in fame - just the prize money. Ahead of the first series, 20,000 people applied but on the back of its huge success, 130,000 people applied to either be a Faithful or a Traitor.
Speaking about what sets the BBC show apart from other reality programmes she said: "For the first series, 20,000 applied, and for the second series, it was around 130,000. What I love about our cast is that they're not interested in being famous, they want to play the game and win the money."
Despite being involved in the show, the Strictly Come Dancing host describes the show as "compelling" due to its nail biting nature. More than 34 billion viewed the first series on BBC iPlayer, which is perhaps why the TV personality is overwhelmed with anxiety over the high expectation by viewers. She explained: "We're going again but I'm feeling nervous and weird about it. I originally said 'lets just leave it as this magical thing that happened. Then the head of BBC took my temperature. I just don't want people's expectations to be so high."
Claudia Winkleman reveals key reason why The Traitors is better than other reality TV showsSpeaking to Heat magazine, she added: "The game is compelling and it taps into something I've been told all my life 'Trust your gut'. But it turns out you can't. You know absolutely nothing. On Strictly Come Dancing I'm like a cheerleader. When they sat me down and said I had to kick two people out, I was like 'Don't be ridiculous I can't do that'. I do have to be quite cold. Sometimes I'm on the side of the Traitors and sometimes I really want the Faithful to get one of them. They work in equal measure because I respect game play above everything."
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Earlier this month, Claudia revealed that she was left shaken during a round table of the second series of the show. Contestant will head to the Scottish castle in an attempt to deceive their co-stars into believing they are a Faithful. And the aim is to scoop the cash prize of £120,000. When asked if she will still be rooting for both the Faithful and the Traitors like she had in the last series, she replied: "I was really rooting for both. It’s a really strange thing, I stand at that round table trying to just melt into the walls and I’m backing both sides."
She added: "I so want them to catch a Traitor and I also want the Traitors to get away with it. In the end I respect and admire gameplay and there’s a lot of that in this series. I want both the Faithful and Traitors to win, which is confusing." In the last series, viewers were kept glued to their seats as tensions rose, and it seems things turn even more sinister in series two, which had a negative impact on the presenter. She added: "It definitely gets extremely tense, it did in the first series too but there’s one round table in this episode when I came out shaking."