Madeleine Sami has been confirmed as host of The Traitors NZ.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was all very last-minute because Paul [Henry] jumped off, and then there was a flurry of [the production company] trying to see a bunch of people and fill that position, and so it came in very last second. It was a bit out-of-the-blue to be auditioning, so when I got the call, I gave out a little squeal.\u201d <\/p>\n
The reality competition pits a group of strangers against one another in a remote location where a handful of them are marked as traitors, who have the job of \u201cmurdering\u201d their fellow contestants one by one. <\/p>\n
The faithful contestants try to vote out the traitors each night. If a traitor is among the last contestants standing, they win all the prizemoney. If it\u2019s just faithfuls, they split the pool. <\/p>\n
Sami says she\u2019s most excited to see how contestants behave in the strange environment, a heritage home in a secret location. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m really excited to observe human behaviour and the way groups of people act together under this kind of stress and pressure \u2013 it\u2019s obviously kind of like what I\u2019ve done for my whole life as an actor. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really fun to have a front row seat to watching the story of the season take place,\u201d the 45-year-old adds. <\/p>\n
Jackie van Beek and Madeleine Sami in The Breaker Upperers, which they wrote and directed. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n
With Henry having two drama-filled seasons under his belt as a host, will Sami be taking any lessons from the broadcasting veteran and his Traitors persona?<\/p>\n
\u201cPaul Henry as a human being is just a very mischievous kind of spirit,\u201d Sami says with a laugh. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think that\u2019s in the spirit of the show \u2013 his personality and that sort of playfulness, cheekiness and kind of naughtiness, it\u2019s really essential. So I\u2019m very happy to pick up where he left off, carry that bat on for my own.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sami is set to be the first female to host the New Zealand iteration of the show, something she says she\u2019s thrilled about and not taking lightly. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2018ll tell you what, I\u2019m putting in the hours now, so let\u2019s see what happens. I\u2019m just really excited to bring my persona to the role. I\u2019m not giving anything away, but it\u2019s going to be great.\u201d<\/p>\n
The castle where The Traitors NZ season 3 will be filmed. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n
So how does she think she might fare as a contestant on the show? <\/p>\n
\u201cI think I\u2019d be a terrible contestant. I joked about this the other day, you know, as a moderately successful, occasionally award-winning actress, I always tried and hoped to use my power for good,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n
\u201cContrary to popular belief, I find lying quite hard to do in real life. I\u2019d have to completely immerse myself in some sort of character and then I think everyone would just know the jig is up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thankfully for Sami, her role as host will place her on the other side of the schemes, and she says that\u2019s where she is most comfortable and most grateful to be. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s so much less pressure to be the host, so I\u2019m very excited to see what happens. I can\u2019t wait.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Madeleine Sami has been confirmed as host of The Traitors NZ. \u201cIt was all very last-minute because Paul…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":51095,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[6876,74,696,806,1558,40367,2223,156,44134,10938,12022,14448,117,111,139,69,1118,21501,20632,6926,9871,223,44133,4518],"class_list":{"0":"post-51094","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-actress","9":"tag-after","10":"tag-announced","11":"tag-as","12":"tag-been","13":"tag-comedian","14":"tag-confirmed","15":"tag-entertainment","16":"tag-exclusively","17":"tag-herald","18":"tag-host","19":"tag-madeleine","20":"tag-new","21":"tag-new-zealand","22":"tag-newzealand","23":"tag-nz","24":"tag-of","25":"tag-reveal","26":"tag-sami","27":"tag-season","28":"tag-speculation","29":"tag-the","30":"tag-traitors","31":"tag-weeks"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51094"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51094\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}