Jonathan Ross has revealed that his experience on The Traitors was far more difficult than he ever expected, and admits he has already been warning celebrity friends to think twice before signing up for the next series.
The broadcaster appeared in the first celebrity version of the hit show and, as a traitor, found himself in the particularly uncomfortable position of having to deceive people he was genuinely fond of. Looking back, Jonathan, 65, admits his feelings about the experience are somewhat complicated.
He said: “Did I enjoy it? I did and I didn't. At the time I thought I didn't enjoy it because of the lying. I realised it was more complex than that, but the lying was an issue for me.”
Psychological toll of the game
For someone used to interviewing celebrities rather than deceiving them, the psychological side of the game proved surprisingly draining. He explained: “Even though I knew it was a game show, you were still spending time in real life with people as people, and nice people.”
That was where Jonathan found himself struggling most. “Someone said, ‘I think you're being nice to me for a reason.’ I thought that was awful because I was genuinely just being supportive, but of course within the context of the game there is that element.”
The pressure did not stop when the cameras were not rolling. “We were lying all the time, because you're sharing a car with people in the morning, and even though we're not supposed to be talking about the game but obviously some people do, so you're lying then,” he says. “So you're guarding this secret that you have and others know that someone has. You're on the defence the whole time and you have to look people in the eye and lie.”
Harder than expected
Jonathan found the constant deception particularly difficult because he could not simply switch off from the game in the same way he would being on a chat show. “You go in saying I will give as much as I can, and try and help this show be as good as it can be, I always turn up to work. And then you have to try and engineer ways to get them out.”
The worst part, he admits, was seeing the consequences of his success as a hated traitor. “Then you see them standing there being banished because you've been successful, and then you see that they're upset… It's a horrible feeling, even though it's essential to the game.”
Jonathan insists he does not want to criticise the show itself, but admits he was caught off guard by just how emotionally exhausting it would become. “I don't wanna say anything negative about the show. But I did feel it was much harder than I expected, and I did struggle with that.”
Advice to celebrity friends
His fellow traitor Alan Carr, who had previously worked as the warm-up man on Jonathan's BBC chat show, apparently felt similarly. “I know Alan [was the same], Cat [Burns], not so much, she said ‘it's a game’ and she found it easier to put it into perspective.”
There were certainly no hard feelings when Alan and Cat eventually turned on him. Jonathan says he had actually encouraged them to do exactly that. “In one of the very first episodes I said to them, ‘Guys, I'm getting more heat than you. When it comes to it, throw me under the bus. I just want one of us to win.’”
He does not believe he was ever destined to make it all the way to the end anyway. “To be honest with you, I don't think I was in danger of winning, because towards the end I was frankly exhausted.”
And now Jonathan has found himself becoming an unlikely agony uncle for stars who considered entering the castle, and admitted he may have been a little too honest. He previously shared: “I've had two celebrity friends of mine call me and say ‘I've been approached - is it good to do, is it bad to do?’ I'm giving them the benefit of my experience, which was I didn't enjoy it.”
Jonathan has no hesitation when explaining why. “I'm a Traitor, that's why. I found the lying really wearing, it left me feeling increasingly uncomfortable.”
After spending more than two weeks away from his family, there was another element that made the experience particularly challenging. Jonathan had never been away from his wife Jane Goldman for that long before. “I've never been away from my wife for that long [two and a half weeks],” he says. “We had no contact really apart from I insisted that I would speak to her every day. We've been married 38 years now. We speak every day. Of course we do.”
So while the castle may have delivered compelling television, Jonathan's verdict is decidedly less enthusiastic. For viewers, however, his discomfort was exactly what made the game so compelling, because when you're watching The Traitors, you want to believe the people on screen are feeling the pressure. And Jonathan clearly was.
