Mischievous Rodger Corser ready to play more Traitors

Actor Rodger Corser is pretty chilled about his hosting duties on The Traitors, whoever that may be….

Is he Rodger? Is he a character? Some sort of heightened version of himself? On a new whodunnit format there is room to play, after all.

“I really don’t know what I’m doing up there!” he jests.

“But honestly in Series One, we didn’t know what we were kind of doing.

“We realised it was a genre piece and sort of leaned in. And then as (Host Producer) Matt Lovkis and I were writing bits and pieces, we thought, ‘Make him like the Lord of the Manor, Manager of the Hotel!’ So they were the references to ‘my family estate’ ….and all this ridiculous stuff, because it was linking the challenges thematically. Then we would then talk to the producers and I’d say, ‘I’ll wear something that’s a bit apt for the challenge.'”

Channelling classic mysteries from Agatha Christie to Clue, Corser has donned all manner of period costumes and sometimes even a high society accent.

“It wavered terribly from scene to scene, but I think everyone gets what’s going on. It’s tongue in cheek!” he insists.

“There’s a little element of wanting to watch people crash and burn”

As Master of Ceremonies there’s even inspiration from Rocky Horror‘s Frank-N-Furter and Willy Wonka.

“There’s a little element of wanting to watch people crash and burn,” he cheekily admits. “So there’s a mischievous raising of an eyebrow, yeah.

“We break the fourth wall. I’ll be talking to the contestants, explaining a scene, and then I’ll just turn to camera and down the barrel go, ‘What do you reckon about this?’ So we’re trying to bring the audience in and engage with them a little bit more this season.”

Season Two of the series returns to the refined Robertson hotel in the NSW Southern Highlands. 20 players known as ‘Faithfuls’ hope to make it to series end without being taken out by double agent Traitors, to share in a prize pot of up to $250,000 in silver bars. This year they include a former undercover cop, a lawyer, ex-federal agent, professional wrestler and a clinical psychotherapist.

Also appearing are several TV faces including Below Deck Mediterranean’s Hannah Ferrier, ex-MKR contestant Ash Pollard, actor Gyton Grantley and Australian Survivor’s Luke Toki.

“There’s some people that are no stranger to TV and reality formats… personalities or celebrities in their own right. I mean, we haven’t gone full I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here,” he remarks.

“Obviously having somebody from outside the normal 10 audience may perhaps bring them in and watch the show. But also, they’re people who have played a psychological game like this before, and they’ve done very well, whether it be Survivor or they’ve had to be in a pressure cooker situation for a long period of time, deprived of luxuries.

“There’s no coasting in the first couple of episodes”

“So they’re hardened. They know how to play these types of games, how to get someone onside and befriend them, whether that be only a game playing aspect or whether they are actually forming relationships. It makes the other players step up the game and they see where the bar is set. There’s no coasting in the first couple of episodes.

“I think everyone steps up from season one because we were an unknown format in the first year and no one really knew the game. But now there’s been various English-speaking versions of it. Everyone’s done their homework. Then you add these more experienced reality stars in there. We come out the blocks really hard and the game’s on from episode one.”

Season Two also adds a Shield, effectively an elimination immunity, which will go to one player from the teams undertaking episode challenges.

“We have two coloured tracksuits, this year. We have blue and red teams. Whoever wins, then goes on sometimes in a shield challenge. They can hide the shields it’s anonymous, and then other ones are out in the open,” Corser continues.

“It’s not necessarily following the British or the Americans”

“We have an armory, which was in the original Dutch version, which we left out in our first season but the other versions did have. So it’s not necessarily following the British or the Americans, we’ve gone back to what the Dutch did originally, where you go into this armory. It’s potluck, behind behind the doors, and there’s one shield waiting for you.

“We had the shield sporadically last year, but now it’s pretty much almost every (episode).”

Corser even gets a sidekick this year, in the form of producer Dan.

“You’ll see him in the second episode. He helps me in the challenges and some other things. He plays a very good mute. It’s a way to ask questions of the game or the contestants. Dan will give me a nod or a snooty eyebrow raise,” he teases.

“We do some pretty awful things on the challenges this time around with electric shocks, and we get them wet and muddy and horrible. There’s a few tantrums.”

In the last two years The Traitors has become a huge global hit sparking international versions and format awards. Corser credits 10 with sticking with the concept after some challenging numbers in its first season last year.

“The discerning Australian audience waits for the word of mouth to work”

“I’ve said this before, but maybe Australian audiences are a little bit more skeptical for new things. So that slow burn’s got to happen a little bit more. You can do a marketing rollout but the discerning Australian audience waits for the word of mouth to work.

“I think people came to this show late and that’s a good thing. Our show is sort of is made for catch up TV because we have a cliffhanger at the end of every episode, as opposed to some other formats where people might tune in for the Sunday reveal or just when someone gets knocked out. That’s happening every episode for us.

“We usually finish on who’s gonna be murdered overnight, but don’t find out until the breakfast the next morning.

“There’s no filler episodes with our show. So it’s very bingeable.”

7:30pm Sunday – Tuesday on 10.