The Traitors fans left shocked after it was revealed where contestants stay while filming

Today (1 January) marks a big beginning, and sorry to quote Troy and Gabriella, but the start of something new.

And no, I’m not talking about it being the first day of 2025 and the introduction of Generation Beta but a new drop on TV tonight.

The Traitors, obviously. Marking the third series of the popular BBC show, some of us are already hooked before it’s kicked off properly.

Hosted by Claudia Winkleman, the BAFTA-winning programme sees 25 strangers (but are they all strangers?) in a game of ‘social deception’ as they try to hunt out the Traitors while working to a cash pot of up to £120,000.

But as we watch them lying to and figuring out each other in the whopper castle in Scotland, fans have been left shocked after it was revealed where they actually stay while filming.

As fans know, The Traitors seems to make it look as though each contestant has their own fancy room in the Highland spot - I mean, who can forget Diane doing those lunges next to the bed in her clip last year?

However, while all of the drama might be filmed there, it’s not really where the players get some shuteye at night. Instead, they’re hitting the hay in a £70-a-night airport hotel.

This was confirmed by Alan Cumming who hosts the US version of the show which is filmed in the same location as the UK's version - the Ardross Castle.

Speaking to The Daily Beast, he said: "They [the contestants] all stayed in the airport hotel in the Inverness airport. How glamorous - you come to Scotland, and you stay in the Inverness airport hotel!

"I stayed in a little house in Inverness. But I had a room in the castle where I would get made up and dressed. It had a huge bed in it. So I did actually sleep quite often, but not overnight."

After each day of filming, the contestants reportedly rest up at the Courtyard by Marriott, a 40-minute drive away from the castle.

Fans took to social media to comment on Cumming's admission, with one writing: "OMG! I always imagined they all stayed in individual little cottages on the castle estate somewhere - this is way less romantic than what I thought."

And Winkleman also confirmed on the Dish podcast that the cast are kept apart so they can't chat off-camera.

She continued: "So everybody is man-marked, they have somebody who is looking after them, and when they leave the castle, they don’t see each other until they arrive at breakfast."

Winkleman revealed that contestants have their phones taken away, and stay up 'really late' due to filming and the Traitors, who obviously have to plot their murders before everyone 'wakes up', stay even later for filming though 'there is no way they can bump into anyone'.

The Traitors begins tonight at 8pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.