The Traitors presenter Claudia Winkleman has said it would be “hard” if a “great friend” took part in the show’s celebrity edition.
Celebrity Traitors was announced by the BBC at Edinburgh Television Festival in August last year, and will see famous faces take on the reality gameshow, with further details on the show being announced in due course.
Asked by Radio Times if she would stop her friends and colleagues, such as Strictly Come Dancing’s Craig Revel Horwood, from appearing on the upcoming show, the 52-year-old presenter said: “I haven’t vetoed anyone, but I think it would be hard if a great friend did it.”
She was also asked if filming has begun on the new version of the show, to which she replied cryptically: “The weather has been pretty tricky lately don’t you think? Lots of rain the other day.”
The third series of the standard edition of the tense BBC show is currently airing, and sees contestants attempt to identify who among them are “faithfuls” and which are “traitors”, with the traitors plotting to murder the faithfuls, and the faithfuls trying to identify and banish the traitors.
Finalists have a chance of winning a chunk of the £120,000 prize but if a traitor survives until the very end, unidentified, they take home the full prize pot, while any faithfuls left go home with nothing.
Speaking about the current series, Winkleman said players would have to “rely on their instinct even more” in its finale, adding that trust is “more vital than ever”.
Winkleman also revealed that she has cried at the end of the show’s previous two series, and said that one banishment had left her in tears in series three as she “couldn’t stand someone leaving”.
Asked how she thought she would fare as a contestant, and whether she would prefer to be a traitor or a faithful, she replied: “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.”
Speaking about how the traitors are picked, Winkleman added: “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.”
The Traitors returns to BBC One and iPlayer on Wednesday at 9pm.
The full interview can be read in the latest edition of Radio Times.
