The Traitors came to a dramatic end on Friday night (January 25th), which saw Leanne and Jake take home the money, in another win for the Faithfuls.
And one person who knows all too well what it’s like to experience the programme is season one contestant Ivan Brett, who spoke about the immediate aftermath of filming, as well as the reception from viewers - including exactly how long people kept recognising him for.
Speaking in conjunction with Spin Genie’s AR Treasure Quest launch, he says the WhatsApp group chat was ‘very intense’ with over 400 messages exchanged a day, and says the experience was ‘like all being in love with each other’ after leaving the game.
Ivan speaks about the cast’s worries the show ‘failed’ after the first three episodes didn’t quite get the hype they were hoping, and how some of the cast later ‘skyrocketed’ on Instagram, before the majority went back to normal life ‘very quickly’.
Finally, he shares the ‘jealousy’ of watching the season two players take part in the game, as well as the advice he shared with them, and admits some grudges formed on the show ‘did come back’ when season one came to air months later.
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Speaking in conjunction with Spin Genie’s AR Treasure Quest launch, Ivan Brett says:
There was quite a gap between filming and the series being on TV, how did you guys all cope in the meantime?
Yeah it was crazy. As soon as the show was over and everyone was in the group chat, it was really intense. That group chat was, the kinds of WhatsApps you've got when you get back to it, you've been away for an hour, and there's 400 messages.
That was every single day. I didn't think at the time people were holding grudges. I think actually some of the grudges that people held kind of came back when watching the show. Between it filming and it coming out, it was a really happy family feeling. Everyone loved everyone. We were just all in love with each other in this kind of amazing way.
We had this secret, and no one else was talking about what happened, and we really expected, by that point, that it was going to be this big hit. What a really famous musician when they are sitting on an album and they haven't released it yet but can’t wait for the world to see it.
We obviously couldn't tell anyone else about it, and we were supposed to keep it totally secret, and we did, but we definitely hung out together. Some of us went to Centre Parcs together! It was only when the show started coming out, it became a lot more difficult to feel like we shared that secret, because the world knew about it.
When the show was finally on TV, what was that feeling like?
The first three episodes came out, they weren't very successful. People forget this now because it's become so popular, but the first three episodes didn't really have that many viewers. They released it over three days, but it was that weekend, when everyone started watching it over the weekend and talking about Monday back after the weekend.
I remember Tuesday, episode four, that was the episode where everything happened with me. That was the greatest episode so far, and that's when everything went viral on Twitter, that was the big moment. That first week of the show, we were all like, ‘oh no, it's just another failed reality TV format’, and then it went crazy. Aaron was the first person to skyrocket on Instagram because he cried, during that round table with John and everyone felt sorry for him.
It helps that he's an incredibly sexy man. Then it happened to other people, Maddy and Wilf, who felt big bumps in their social presence. It was very intense, and for quite a short amount of time, we were celebrities now. But of course, most of us realised we'd go back to our normal lives very quickly. Some of us within days, some of them, some of us within months, some of them within a couple of years.
For me, it was very quick, a few days and being shouted out on the tube, and then a couple of weeks later, basically, life was normal again.
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What was it like watching season 2 and almost going through that experience again?
It was really exciting, it felt great to see other people getting to experience what we experienced. There was definitely a feeling of jealousy, like, ‘Oh, that's not fair’. How come they're getting to do it? I ended up being really proud of them.
As it was happening, I messaged them on Instagram, and I'd be like, ‘This is amazing, I love this bit, you came across so well in this,’ and I just tried to reach out and contact them. I thought it was really nice. I remember the experience, I went through that.
The experience of watching yourself back on TV was a lot more anxiety inducing than the experience of being on the show. There was anxiety, but it was overwhelming in other ways as well. Watching yourself on TV, that's just pure anxiety. How were they going to show me? What are people going to think? I really wanted to help support [season 2 contestants] through that.
There was some initial jealousy of, ‘That's not fair, I want to be doing that, I want a second chance’. After that, it was a feeling of pure pride. It's been fun with a bunch of season two contestants as well. I just think they're fantastic. We have this thing right, which we share, which is that we've been through this show experience. It feels like a special connection.
