Rodger Corser Spills on What We Can Expect From ‘The Traitors’

October 13, 2022

rodger corser the traitors — Network Ten

If you’re a fan of Knives Out, or have ever confidently declared that the murderer was Miss Scarlett, in the conservatory, with the candlestick, then Network Ten has a show for you.

The Traitors is a new competition reality series that takes place in an old hotel, where our Faithful contestants will compete in challenges to win bars of silver.

The twist, because there’s always a twist, is that there are Traitors masquerading as Faithfuls amongst them, trying to pick them off, one by one. If a Traitor makes it to the end, they’ll win the entire prize pool of silver — worth up to $250,000 — for themselves. If a Faithful makes it to the end, they’ll be presented with a choice: either split the prize with their other Faithful, or keep it all for themselves.

Chatting to The Latch ahead of the show’s premiere on Sunday, October 16, host Rodger Corser revealed what audiences could expect from the new series, as well as what drew him to the hosting gig in the first place.

“I’m really excited for everyone to see it, I think everyone will enjoy it,” Corser said over the phone.

While Corser conceded that “the idea of voting people off is not necessarily brand new” in the world of reality competition programs, he did think viewers would be enticed by the breakneck pace of the show.

“It does go quite quickly, because within the one episode, two people will leave the game, and that’s not just occasionally,” he explained.

In essence, Corser said, there are two ways for people to leave the game. They’re either “murdered by a Traitor” in the night, or “banished” by the players at a “Banishment Ceremony” if the Faithfuls suspect them of being a Traitor.

“The Traitors don’t tell anyone except their fellow Traitors who they are, so everyone is claiming to be a Faithful,” Corser explained. “In our version, there are four Traitors, but the Faithful don’t know how many there are.

“Everyone has kind of got their eye on everyone else in the game and has got their suspicion,” Corser said, “and can I say, it’s a lot harder to pick the people who are the Traitors or who are lying than it might seem, and the Faithful get it quite wrong, often, and start sending their own home, and that starts turning the heat up on everyone quite quickly, because they start to fail their job, and then people start to… perhaps lose their cool a little?”

Best known for his work as an actor on Aussie shows like Doctor Doctor, Five Bedrooms and Underbelly, Corser is now bringing his theatrical background into his new hosting gig on The Traitors.

“Besides a little bit of morning television fill-in, I hadn’t really done presenting in any way, shape or form before,” he explained. “When Endemol, the executive producers of this show, approached me to come in and have a talk about it, I think they half expected me to not do it, because I hadn’t done anything like it before, but when they explained the concept and showed us the location, it definitely had a theatrical element to it, so it’s kind of the perfect crossover for me.”

Noting that the show “just seemed like a lot of fun”, Corser went on to say that their desire for his “input into the tone” of the show was what really sold it for him.

“That’s why we sort of ended up writing the hosting role as kind of a character, almost,” he said. “It’s a bit straighter in the first episode, but as we go on, a little bit more personality comes out… We kind of imply that it’s his hotel, which, that’s not my story, I don’t own that hotel!”

Corser laughed. “My family don’t come from great wealth, we’re very middle-class suburban people. So it was great to have kind of an English aristocracy edge to it, old Australian money, sort of.

“And then I had a great wardrobe budget! Like, the best wardrobe budget I think I’ve ever had in any show, in any drama show,” he laughed.

One big difference between acting and hosting, Corser said, was the importance of nailing his mini-monologues in one take.

Written mostly on the morning before cameras began rolling, Corser said that he’d “have maybe 20 minutes” after they’d finished writing them to try to memorise them, where he would “just try to smash them into [his] brain”.

“I’d wanna get it in one take because I’m not dealing with other actors who are going to give me the same reaction,” he explained.

After the first take, Corser said, “the reaction would be like ‘yeah, we’ve heard that joke'”.

He laughed.

“It’s like bombing as a comedian onstage by the third take, they’re kind of yawning by the third time you do it! So we’d try to do everything in one go as much as possible, and get their reaction.”

The Traitors premieres at 7.30pm on Sunday, October 16, only on 10 and 10 Play on Demand.

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