The Traitors UK season 3 episode 1 spoilers follow.
The UK's version of The Traitors returned for its third season premiere tonight (January 1), and Claudia Winkleman didn't even wait for this year's players to get to the castle before dropping the first twist on them.
The 25 contestants got on the train and spread themselves out over three carriages, but their journey came to a pause. Over the tannoy, the voice of Claudia told them there were only 22 spaces, and they would need to lose one person per carriage.
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To add even more pressure, Claudia's voice revealed that there was £10,000 ready to be instantly added to the prize pot, but for every minute spent deliberating, that number would decrease by £1,000.
Would-be contestant Fozia decided pretty quickly that she would get off, stating that "I don't know what came over me, I did it for the team. Only after I got off I thought, 'what have I done?'"
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Her decision inspired fellow Jack to follow her out. Former diplomat Alexander said he'd consider it, in the hope others would also put themselves up. As no-one else did, he had to go. In the end, £7,000 was added to the prize pot.
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At the castle, things proceeded as expected, with Claudia secretly selecting Minah, Armani (whose sister Maia is also in the game), and Linda as her Traitors, with their first murder set to happen on that night.
After everyone took their blindfolds off and tried to look for tells, Claudia dropped another bombshell twist: those who make it to the final will no longer reveal identities when they leave. This means the finalists will have to use their instincts to decide whether to end the game or not.
In the Traitors' Tower, the trio deliberated whether to murder Yin, Nathan, or Kas first.
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In the morning, it was revealed that Yin was the first player to be murdered, on account of her intelligence and potential of being a major threat down the line.
With no task, the episode went straight to the Round Table for the first banishment. Some suspicion was thrown Linda's way, but without much to go on, a lot of it was thrown back towards Nathan and Jake.
But the jam-packed episode had to end at some point, and before the first vote was cast, the show cut to credits.
The Traitors season 3 airs on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday nights on BBC One and BBC iPlayer. Spin-off The Traitors: Uncloaked, hosted by Ed Gamble, airs afterwards at 9pm on BBC Two and BBC iPlayer.
Joe Anderton is a freelance news writer at Digital Spy, having worked there since 2016. In his time, he's covered a host of live events and interviewed celebrities big and small. A big fan of TV and movies both mainstream and obscure, Joe also enjoys video games and in particular PlayStation. Joe currently does not use Twitter, but he only ever used it to tell people to watch the film Help! I'm a Fish.
