The Traitors Ireland boss has dished the details on what fans can expect from the new series of the hit show.

The RTÉ One show – set in Slane Castle – returns to our screens on Sunday, August 30 with a new batch of Traitors and Faithfuls hoping to get their hands on the €50,000 cash prize.

Darren Smith, MD of Kite Entertainment, said this year’s cast brings a ‘slightly different energy’ than last year’s series.

He told us: ‘Slightly different energy, because, you know – this is a boring analogy that I keep boring everyone with – but Traitors is like sport. It is like football. And when you put different players in, you get a different game.

‘And, you know, no shock to anybody. I mean, it’s not like the cast coming in last year didn’t know the show.

‘Of course, this year’s cast have had more examples to watch. So the player has had, you know, all the international versions.

‘So some of them have been deeply consumed in it. And you can see that, and there’s a little bit of them kind of trying to outsmart the format sometimes, but it’s like, whatever they do, it just gives us a story.

‘It might not be the story we were expecting. They were beginning to look for loopholes in the missions, where others or, last year, they didn’t, but that’s fine… It’s a very robust format.

‘And one of the things we really have to learn was how to not produce.’

Darren said they also offered cast two rest days instead of one day off and crew members also had to black out the bottom of hotel room doors to evade nosy cast members from spotting Traitors coming in and out of the hotel.

He said: ‘Everyone’s always very tired when they’re in this room (the conclave) because our cast, traitor, faithful, we have to ship everyone back to the hotel.

‘So because they’re all watching out their hotel windows, we discovered last year people have been looking under the door of the hotel, that gap, and recognising shoes.

‘It never worked for them, but they got to know the footwear of various members of the production team, but that was about it.’

‘So we have to black out hotel windows, all that stuff. We have to do dummy runs to bring everyone back. Then they have to come back here so there’s a lot of us waiting for them to come back to do their murdering and all of that.’

The show became a huge ratings hit and saw 23-year-old business graduate Kelley Higgins from Letterkenny, Dublin model Oyin Adeyemi (23), and Vanessa Ogbonna (28), a content creator from Tramore, triumph over their rivals.

It also made a breakout star of retired prison officer Paudie Moloney (70), who went on to compete in Dancing with the Stars earlier this year.

The Traitors Ireland and The Traitors Ireland Uncloaked return Sunday 30 August, RTÉ One and RTÉ Player.