“Les Traîtres” return for a sixth season this Saturday on M6. While the filming of the seventh edition is about to start, the success of this game of hidden roles remains strong. It has a much greater attraction than other shows (“Mask Singer,” “Dancing with the Stars”) in the eyes of celebrities, many of whom request to participate.
Despite this, each season, several candidates later express how unpleasant the experience was. “My husband picked up the pieces of me. I’ve never cried like that. I was at the end of my rope, it was pathetic. I thought about giving up,” Charlotte de Turckheim told “Télé Star” two years ago. So what motivates participants to embark on this ordeal?
“I shouldn’t say this, but I loved it. I love suffering!” jokes Isabelle Morini-Bosc. She covered “Les Traîtres” as a media journalist and switched to being a player in the game. “The castle is a character in itself, it influences you, it’s extraordinary,” she says, finding the game and its narrative concept “fascinating.”
“Unknown and hostile territory” for Sophie Davant
Sophie Davant was contacted by the production several times but always declined, citing lack of time. The journalist and presenter finally said yes to this season 6, pushed by her children and her friend Caroline Margeridon, a figure from the second edition. “She annoyed me with this show, she said she had lived something crazy, and I didn’t understand what she was talking about,” she says. “Since I had a little more time this year, I thought I was a bit stupid never to have watched it. And when I did, I found it brilliant, very well produced and edited, with suspense, like a series.”
“I had one certainty, that I was entering unknown territory and would probably not be a great player because I’m not very strategic. But I thought I could adapt,” she continues. However, on-site, she felt immersed in a “hostile” environment: “Before filming started, we spent an evening together with the other candidates, we bonded, I wanted to know more about them, and as soon as the game started, we were directly confronted with betrayal, escape, and changing behaviors. I found it really hard. It was violent. That’s the purpose of the game, but it reinforced my idea that I had nothing to do there,” Sophie Davant concludes.
“A psychological and emotional experience”
Artist Richard Orlinski understands this feeling. “We know that betrayal will occur. At the same time, friendships are formed, which all resonates with deeply rooted things in oneself,” he believes. For him, there is a “before” and “after” “Les Traîtres”: “It’s a real psychological, emotional, relational experience that is extraordinary, that few people experience, and there are no other programs in the world that make you feel that.”
“When I left the game, I cried for three days,” says Nicole Ferroni. The comedian and presenter perhaps sought the psychologist made available by the production more than any other participant before, during, and after filming. She explains the stress experienced by traitors and loyalists, highlighting the increasing stress for the latter as the game progresses.
What struck her particularly? Seeing how easy it is to act as a group, make accusations without real evidence. “I felt guilty for being so convinced. I was impressed by my ability to feel superior, to think I had the keys,” she confesses.
“I love the learning that the show brought me. But, honestly, I was a bit traumatized,” Nicole Ferroni explains. After filming, she often replayed the game in her head and even dreamt about it. However, paradoxically, if offered to participate in “Les Traîtres” again, she wouldn’t hesitate for a second. “I would say yes a hundred times! Because now I know how it works.”
