9 Rules You Didn't Know “The Traitors” Contestants Have to Follow (Including Where They Stay — Hint: Not in the Castle!)

The Traitors may be a game show full of famous TV personalities, but that doesn't mean the contestants get special treatment. In fact, there's a strict set of rules the cast must follow.

The Peacock show, hosted by Alan Cumming, kicked off its third season on Jan. 9 with the first three episodes. Its star-studded cast features a mix of former game show contestants and reality TV stars, including Vanderpump Rules's Tom Sandoval, Survivor's Jeremy Collins and The Real Housewives of New York City's Dorinda Medley.

The 24 celebrity players packed up their bags in 2024 and crossed the pond to film in a Scottish castle complete with sprawling grounds and a quirky caretaker. However, while the audience sees them take part in a number of challenging missions for a prize pot and convene around the roundtable to share their guesses on who they think the Traitors in the room are, the contestants experience a different reality behind the scenes.

While filming, the cast follow stringent guidelines that prevent them from communicating with one another when cameras are down, or even connecting with people outside of the show. Even in post-production, the players must keep all details tight-lipped — or they might be booted off, per The Real Housewives of New Jersey's Dolores Catania.

“There are no leaks in Traitors,” she said while joining TwoTsCon: Two Ts in a Pod Live in November 2024, adding that the production company "does not mess around.” She continued, "They will edit you right out of that show."

From their limited communication to where they are allowed to sleep, here's nine rules the contestants on The Traitors have to follow.

Players don’t sleep in the castle

In each episode of the show, cameras follow the contestants as they seemingly get into bed in identical, Gothic-style rooms in the castle. However, the shot is deceiving: the competitors actually sleep in a hotel 45 minutes away from set.

"They all stayed in the airport hotel in the Inverness airport," Cumming told The Daily Beast in January 2023 of season 1. "How glamorous you come to Scotland, and you stay in the Inverness airport hotel. I stayed in a little house in Inverness."

However, the host had his own room in the castle to get ready in — and did he occasionally take naps in there, he admitted.

There’s a limit to how much they can drink

Though the contestants are often shown with a glass (or goblet) in hand, they are limited to only one drink per evening.

"You can only drink one drink a night anyway, it was quite restricted," season 2 contestant Ekin-Su Cülcüloğlu told Entertainment Weekly in January 2024.

There’s a limited amount of places they can go in the castle

Not only are the contestants not allowed to sleep in the castle, but they also have a limited number of spaces they can explore in the rented-out space. For season 2, the creators added the "scullery," which is like a kitchen and then the "folley," which is an outdoor, stone-covered area, for the Traitors and Faithfuls to convene in.

"We always felt that a kitchen is somewhere you go grab a cup of tea and it's a real sort of gathering place," producer Sam-Rees Jones said during a February 2024 panel. "And whilst we weren't lacking that, it was just somewhere else that we knew we had that space."

There’s security to ensure the Faithfuls don’t see the Traitors convening

Each night, the Traitors convene to decide who they'll eliminate from the show next — but it's an ordeal to make sure the other Faithfuls don't see them slipping away to do so.

"It’s a massive military operation each night to get the Faithful to bed in individual rooms and get the Traitors back out to have their meeting," producer Mike Cotton told Variety in January 2024.

Season 1 and 2 contestant Kate Chastain told Vanity Fair in January 2023 that the production even employed security guards to ensure utmost secrecy.

Cast members can’t talk about the game to each other at the hotel outside of filming hours

After a day of filming, cast members were no longer allowed to discuss any aspect of the game — including former couple Larsa Pippen and Marcus Jordan, who were on season 2 of the show. The pair told PEOPLE they found a creative way to communicate back at the hotel, including sending messages to each other through a fruit.

“Marcus asked me for a nail file, and I put it in a paper bag — and they go through everything, you're not supposed to send anything back and forth — but he wanted a nail file and I was like, I'm just going to send him a nail file,” she said. “And then I was like, oh, there's a banana. He said he wanted a banana. So I [write] ‘I love you’ on the banana and send it to him with the nail file."

"You're not supposed to talk about the game when the mics aren't ready or the cameras aren't on, because if we say something that's important and it's not on camera, they can't use it on the show," season 2 Traitor Dan Gheesling told Business Insider in February 2024.

Cast members must give up their personal belongings

Upon arrival in Scotland, production takes many of the cast members' personal belongings from them, including their phones and passports, season 2 contestant and Shahs of Sunset alum Mercedes "MJ" Javid shared on the Just Sayin' podcast.

"When we got off the plane, I was like, 'Oh you're taking our phones, right now,' " she said. "You're gonna take everything — they take your chargers, your watch, your passport, your wallet, your money.”

Players don’t know who will be on the show before they arrive

Before they arrive in Scotland, contestants aren't privy to who else will be in their season to ensure they are going in completely blind.

"Because it's a game, you don't want them to be able to research each other or talk to each other or form alliances before," casting director Deena Katz told TIME. However, there have been exceptions such as Pippen and Jordan, since the two were a couple.

Celebrities can’t promote their brands

Within their contract, contestants must agree that they won't promote any of their personal brands — which meant The Real Housewives of Atlanta star Shereé Whitfield couldn't rep her SHE by Shereé in season 2.

“They said I could not!” Whitfield told PEOPLE in February 2024. “You can't wear your brand.”

Cast members must take a personality test beforehand

Ahead of taping, casting directors and producers administer personality tests to the potential candidates to determine whether their characters make them a good fit for the show — and, more importantly, who can handle being a Traitor.

"We see attributes that might make someone a good liar or particularly deceptive," Cotton told Variety of the importance of the personality tests.

Rees-Jones added during the 2024 panel that the test "gives us a sort of bearing on the personality strengths and what different attributes they might bring."

Read the original article on People