The Traitors Australia is back for a second season and along for the ride is actor and TV personality Rodger Corser. While last year, the contestants went in mostly blind to the experience, this year, they knew exactly what to expect.
For Corser, the cast having this valuable information about the game meant that after the first murder, it was “game on”.
“The first episode, it’s great, but a few things need to happen obviously,” Corser told Mediaweek during an interview before the Sunday, August 13 premiere. “Once the shock of losing the first person and being banished — which they usually get wrong — and the first murder, then it’s really kind of game on.”
Last year, contestants were only given clues as to what the show was about during the application process and apart from maybe seeing a “non-English speaking” version, they were very much in the dark.
“Everyone was on an even playing field of naivety I suppose,” he said. “But this year, they’re not. Annabel [contestant], she’s quite blatantly going, ‘No one knows more about the show than I do. I’ve seen every English speaking [series], I’ve listened to every podcast.'”
The cast of The Traitors 2023. Ten
Do the celebrity contestants have an advantage?
In 2023, there’s also the addition of “career reality TV contestants”, who Corser says know how to “immerse themselves into this type of game and start the gameplay straight away.”
Included in the cast of Faithfuls and Traitors is Below Deck alum Hannah Ferrier, My Kitchen Rules’ Ash Pollard, actor Gyton Grantley and Australian Survivor’s Luke Toki to name a few.
“They’ve done this, and they’ve done the media afterwards,” he explained. “They have done interviews and they kind of know how a show is going to be put together and they have a knowledge of what works on screen. So, they bring a version of themselves which is going to get screen time.”
He continued: “This is like shock jock radio, you can’t sit on the fence, you have to have an opinion. Even if that opinion is totally wrong, you’ve just got to put your foot in one camp.”
The Traitors 2023’s Luke Toki, Ash Pollard, Hannah Ferrier, Gyton Grantley. Ten
Rodger Corser on the difference between acting and hosting
Corser has 29 impressive acting credits to his name, including the popular Doctor, Doctor, Rush and Puberty Blues; however, The Traitors marked his first hosting gig, noting that there were several differences between the two including the “pace” and “the structure”.
“We bought out a quasi-kind of character, which is probably the worst thought-out character I’ve ever done in my life because the accent does go up and down,” he joked. “Last year when stuff happened, when people’s hearts were broken, I just jumped into ‘me’ and then you’d do the outro bits as the character and it doesn’t match up well!”
Rodger Corser. The Traitors
The actor also noted that he doesn’t get a script and can’t “map it out”, saying that he learns all his lines in a monologue style once they’ve been penned after something happens.
“I like working fast,” he admitted. “I’ve worked on some international productions shot here, and they bring their pace of working, and there’s just more people giving more opinions, and it just slows everything down.
“And this works a little faster than what I’m used to. But I kind of liked the pressure. I like kind of doing one or two takes only and that this is it.”
The Traitors premieres on Sunday, August 13 at 7.30 pm on 10 and 10Play.