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The Traitors legend reveals contestants risk being fined ‘hundreds of thousands of pounds’ if they break huge rule
Contestants have next to no time to prepare for the show once they learn they've been selected
IT'S the most cutthroat gameshow on telly with treachery and deception at its heart.
The road to becoming a contestant on The Traitors is as arduous and meticulous as you'd expect for such an epic piece of primetime television.
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Likening it to a "game before the game", show legend Jaz Singh has lifted the lid on the months long process to make it to the magical Scottish estate.
Jaz, who was dubbed 'Jazatha Christie' for his super sleuthing skills last year, was prompted to apply by his father, who felt he had the perfect skillset to do well.
Speaking exclusively to The Sun on behalf of , he said: "I saw something on Instagram saying, 'Traitors series three are looking for Mancunians'. And I'd just started working from home, and I went, 'wait, I'm a Mancunian. Maybe this is my sign'.
"So I literally whacked the application in. It took me about two hours, going from what's your biggest fear, what's your biggest lie, did you ever get away with it?
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"They want to do a psychoanalysis on you inside and out, so they know you before even speaking to you, so they know what questions to present."
Jaz initially thought the whole thing could be an elaborate scam, due to the in-depth personal nature of the questions and the fact he hadn't heard of the production company before.
However, he pushed on regardless and submitted a video putting his case for selection forward.
"I was thinking, this is a lottery," he said. "There is no way. So I literally just went outside my house and just did a little selfie like that, and just did a video, and just told them what I'm like, how I am with people, and how I like to really, really get into people's minds.
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"And then I got an email back saying, 'Jaz, we'd like to talk to you'. Following on from there, which I thought still not a chance, I went through a hundred Zooms, a hundred auditions."
It wasn't until two weeks before prior to filming that Jaz learned he'd been selected for the show, which he called "mind-blowing".
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But the pressure was then on to keep it top secret or face a massive fine.
He said: "You have to get a ton of stuff prepared, how you're going to deliver this information to various family members to keep this a secret, because you're under an NDA, and they will sue you for hundreds of thousands of pounds of TV damages if this gets leaked.
"So it is such a tactful process, and then to get on eventually, it's mind-blowing.
"You are playing the game before you even enter that castle, before you even get a tap on the shoulder, before you put them blindfolds on, before Claudia says 'hello'."
He's been glued to the current series on the show and is adamant what you see on TV is a fair representation of what's actually happening inside the manor.
"Nothing's edited to make it look like in any other way," he said. "I think that's the great thing about Traitors.
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"Back in the day, reality TV, 'oh, we'd love a fight, we'd love an argument', you know, whereas Traitors is a natural, elongated argument, which you can't really get away from, and it's so hard not to take things personally."
Earlier in the series, GP Kas Ahmed was axed after days of accusations from co-stars that he was a Traitor.
It was an uncomfortable watch at times made worse by the fact he was a Faithful and some viewers to claim it was bullying.
Jaz said: "So if Kas openly admitted and said that he feels ostracised, that probably was the case, you know, and it's painful, because how can you not take things personally in a game like that?
"So when people are trying to gun for you and make you feel really uncomfortable it's a horrible, horrible feeling, you know, and it takes somebody with really thick skin to become calm and collected in a situation like that."
Despite the division, as soon as Kas was eliminated he put on a smile, took a tongue in cheek dig at his biggest critic, Joe Scott, and bowed out gracefully.
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As someone who's been through the emotional turmoil, Jaz tipped his hat to the eliminated star.
He laughed: "I'd be 100 percent saying' you're all stupid, you never listen to me and I'm really annoyed with you all. I don't even want to tell you what I am. I'm going to let you all work it out yourselves'."
How does The Traitors work and who hosts it?
The Traitors first launched in the UK in 2022, after the Dutch format was acquired by the BBC.
Claudia Winkleman is the show's host, and has now hosted all three series to date.
How does it work?
It is a reality game show that involves 22 contestants, and some of them are chosen to be The Traitors.
The Traitors sees a group of contestants taking part in "the ultimate game of truth and deception".
The group of contestants are competing for the chance to walk away with a huge cash prize.
While navigating through a series of challenges, the team are also tasked with figuring out who the Traitors are in the group (usually three contestants).
Each night, the Traitors gather to "eliminate" one of the Faithful, removing them from the competition
Meanwhile, the traitors can be "banished" if they’re successfully outed as a traitor by a faithful.
The winners of the show are either the Traitor who remains undetected or the Faithfuls if they successfully eliminate all the Traitors.
The prize sees the winner could get £120K.
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