Traitors stars dismantle what we think we know about the roundtables, and I’d crumble in seconds

I could sit and watch the roundtables on The Celebrity Traitors for hours, and as it turns out, that’s actually how they play out in real life. 

It might have the word reality in it, but reality TV is far from authentic. It’s carefully snipped, edited, and warped to provide more entertainment for us, so naturally there are some behind-the-scenes secrets that completely change what we think about a show. 

For instance, the breakfasts on The Celebrity Traitors. I bet you didn’t know that some of the yummy food is actually set dressing, and that players eat at the hotel before arriving at Ardross Castle. I didn’t. 

And it’s not just the food situation either, for Traitors is hiding more secrets than Claudia Winkleman’s iconic fringe. 

Roundtables on The Celebrity Traitors are actually so much longer 

Credit: BBC

Paul Gorton took part in Traitors season two, and in a podcast interview, he revealed that the roundtables are miles longer than what we see. 

“The suspension of time is hardest at the round-table. The round-table scenes could take two hours to film, or it could be four hours – I couldn’t say. Time passes slowly or fast depending on how stressed you are,” he said.

Obviously, we get a highlight reel of sorts, but I don’t know about you; I would 1,000 per cent watch an extended cut of the roundtables.

Everyone comes equipped with receipts

When watching The Traitors, I often question how the celebs manage to keep track of all their ideas. We learned this season that Hannah Fry was creating maths formulas and diagrams at the hotel, but I didn’t realise that players are actually given dedicated notebooks for their theories. 

“Everyone had these crazy books covered in scribbles,” Zack Davies said. “Mine was totally random, no method or reasoning, just complete rambles.”

God, I’d LOVE to look inside Joanne McNally’s notebook. 

There’s a bizarre song choice before the roundtable 

Credit: BBC

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Traitors is all about the atmosphere, so former stars have recalled being played a very specific song before the roundtables: The Hanging Tree from The Hunger Games. 

“You walk in and you all sit down and then they don’t announce it’s going to happen,” James Acaster explained. “The first time this will completely blindside you but they do it every single roundtable, they play that song from The Hunger Games, that ‘coming to the tree song’. Like, acappella.”

May the odds be ever in your favour! 

There are actually cameras INSIDE the table 

Though the roundtable is, of course, round, you never see cameramen or production people in the wings, and there’s a reason for that. You see, there are cameras INSIDE the table to capture individual expressions.

That’s why it lowkey looks like one guy is standing in the middle and spinning. 

The edit is savage 

Credit: BBC

Because the roundtables often run for hours, producers have to make major edits to get the episode down to a normal length. As such, so many conversations are axed, leaving question marks behind some of the beefs and frustrations. 

Even the fun stuff gets removed, but that’s more to keep the tension building. Season three’s Alexander Dragonetti said he was chatting about aliens in between the grilling. 

If the BBC could just send me all of the unedited footage, that would be great. 

For all the latest news and drops about The Celebrity Traitors, like The Holy Church of The Traitors on Facebook. 

Featured image credit: BBC