Claudia Winkleman picks all-female Traitors after 'problematic killings'
Linda, Armani and Minah are the three women who have been chosen to be the traitors in series 3.
Three fierce women were chosen to be The Traitors after Claudia Winkleman called out the "problematic murdering" of females in series two.
It is a game of detection, backstabbing and lying. In the first episode, we see the Strictly host have a cosy chat with each of the contestants where they disclose whether they would like to be a traitor or a faithful and why. It's apparently from these chats that Winkleman decides who she is going to pick as traitors.
Now, the TV presenter has selected three women — Linda, 70, Armani, 27, and Minah, 29 — at the roundtable to be this year's starting cast of traitors. All three women were delighted with the decision to become traitors.
It won't come as a surprise that three women were cherry picked as the first traitors to everyone though.
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Why are all the traitors female?
Faithful Elen, 24, who works as a translator, had already sussed out there would be more women traitors in series three. And she shared her suspicions in the first episode of the game.
"One thing I am really, really sure of," she said. "I do think there will be more girls as traitors this year."
As a Welsh translator, Elen said she believes she is "very good at reading people". She said: "I feel there are strong female traitors here. And we need to deal with this very, very strategically."
Last year, host Winkleman called out the traitors for murdering mainly women to begin with at the start of the show. Four out of five of the first "killings" in the game were of female faithfuls.
As the show was airing, Winkleman told BBC Radio 4: "I don't want to say anything because what if people haven't watched? I mean, lots of people haven't and they're listening now and they go "oh, this sounds all right" so I'm not going to say any names, but yeah, it's problematic.
"But then you'll carry on watching and you will see, and that is all I can say."
Meanwhile, on-screen in The Traitors episode, Winkleman had no qualms calling out traitors Harry and Andrew when they chose to recruit another man. She said: "Another man? It's like the olden days."
Winkleman had teased big changes to come in series three. She said: "Things are different this year. There are some really exciting things that have changed, which keeps everyone on the toes and feeds into the central premise of trust! I can’t wait for everyone to see."
Who are the traitors?
The three women chosen as the starting traitors come from different walks of life.
Linda is a retired opera singer and she revealed her reaction to finding out she was a traitor. "When she touched me I thought I've now got to keep a straight face. I mustn't do anything or breathe heavily. Or do something. I'm totally going to have fun! It's woken me up completely."
Meanwhile, Armani is a financial investigator and immediately after finding out she was a traitor her "heart is pumping insanely". She is playing the game with her real-life sister, who is a faithful. She added: "This is where everything changes. Now I know I'm a traitor, the game has finally started for real."
Minah is a call centre manager and she couldn't hide her excitement to be a traitor. She said: "I think I maybe smiled a bit. I was like reign it in. Stop smiling! I can't believe it."
The Traitors starts New Years Day at 8pm on BBC One and iPlayer. Episode 2 will be made available immediately after on iPlayer and will also air on 2 Thursday at 8pm. From episode 3 onwards, all episodes will air at 9pm.
