Rodger Corser to host new reality TV show The Traitors

Rodger Corser says he is the worst liar in the world but now finds himself surrounded by them in his latest role.

Rodger Corser says hosting a reality TV show is out of his comfort zone.

Rodger Corser may be a lot of things – but a liar isn’t one of them. So hosting a new reality show where a contestant’s sole goal is to deceive, is out of his comfort zone.

“Intelligent game playing is not my forte – I’m much more of a straight shooter, a simple suburban boy,” he said, laughing.

“People have asked me, how would you go lying, and I say my characters can be the worst people ever and that’s fine because you’re pulling the mask on and pretending to be someone else.

“But like my wife will say, I’m the worst liar there is – I’m a horrible poker player.”

Network Ten’s new reality competition series, The Traitors, premieres next Sunday, and is the Doctor Doctor star’s first hosting gig. In it, a group of 24 different personalities who “wouldn’t be at the same barbecue together”, Corser says, are put together in a mysterious and grand old Southern Highlands hotel. The aim of the game is to win challenges and collect silver bars, which go into a prize pool of silver worth up to $250,000.

Rodger Corser is the host of new Channel 10 show The Traitors.

The catch is, living among the players are – as the title would suggest – traitors, whose role it is to work together to sabotage everyone else – the faithfuls – in their mission to win challenges, while masquerading as faithfuls themselves. “It’s a really fascinating study to watch … some people are very good at convincing others that they would never ever lie to their face,” Corser said.

“But of course that’s the game.”

He says the show was born from a Dutch concept – and once he saw the first episode he was hooked. It’s enough to hang your hat on, he says, but not too “out there” that viewers won’t believe.

“It works – there are no ‘dead spots’, no pun intended,” he told Insider.

Some contestants walk in with a game plan – masks are on, walls are up and they don’t want to tell the truth about their past.

“For instance, we’ve got a guy called Nigel who was a hostage negotiator and Australia’s longest running hostage – which is absolutely incredible – and he didn’t want that story in the group because he thinks they’re going to think ‘I tell lies for a living’,” he said.

“But then as the game goes on and the pressure is turned up, it all becomes a lot more real because they are isolated from contact from the outside world … in between segments, they’re in their room by themselves. They don’t have any interactions with other contestants that aren’t being filmed. They get a lot of time to stew over things.”

Rodger Corser is back in Melbourne to shoot Five Bedrooms.

What drew Corser in was that The Traitors is different to the reality TV we’re used to, without the contrived weddings, love matches or renovating.

“That’s what drew me in,” the Sydney father of two said.

“We’ve been asked before whether we’d consider some hosting gigs and we passed on some – dare I say – run of the mill shows, because they didn’t really interest us. But when they came to us with the themes of this show, it is less of a jump from what I’m doing, because the hosting role is more of a character.”

Treating the job of host as an acting gig, Corser says it was one of the only roles he’s had with such a “ridiculously amazing” wardrobe.

“I’ve never had a better, sharper wardrobe in my life – and I’ve done some great shows,” he said, laughing.

Corser is currently in Melbourne shooting fellow Ten hit Five Bedrooms for two weeks. When speaking to Insider he had just returned from Bangkok and Phuket with wife Renae Berry for the launch of his other new work Thai Cave Rescue, which was recently released on Netflix.

“That’s been great – it’s No. 4 in the world, which is crazy,” he said.

“We did that last year and at no stage after I finished Thai Cave Rescue did I think that I would be hosting a reality show with a murder mystery whodunit Cluedo-esque, Knives Out kind of show.”

The Traitors will launch on Sunday, October 16 at 7.30pm on 10, and 10 Play on Demand.