'Traitors Canada' stars Kevin Martin, Crystal Mayes expose bad food on the show
Martin, a "Big Brother Canada" winner, reveals how he got a rotisserie chicken delivered to him in manor
While being on CTV's The Traitors Canada may seem a fun reality TV experience for many, two of the show's stars, Big Brother Canada Season 5 winner Kevin Martin and Crystal Mayes, a nurse from Saskatoon, Sask., revealed the food in the manor was a particular struggle.
Mayes confessed that the food during her time on the show, before being murdered by the Traitors, was "not good," which added to the complexity of playing a game while living in a new environment.
Catch up on The Traitors Canada on Crave
After Martin was banished by the remaining players in last week's episode, he echoed Mayes' comments about the food, but found a loophole.
"I was so upset with the food," Martin told Yahoo Canada. "The food was so bad. I eat meat. I eat protein. I burn a lot of calories and three days in I'm like breaking down. I haven't had food."
"I went up to production, I was like, 'Guys I'm giving my heart and soul to this show, somebody needs to get a cell phone and Uber Eats me 80 chicken wings to my hotel room right now.' ... Sure enough, they knocked on the door and slipped me a rotisserie chicken."
'If you are not a Traitor, you're like a sitting duck'
Aside from the food struggle, both Mayes and Martin were tasked with navigating Traitors Canada as Faithfuls. Trying to stay in the game as long as possible, while also trying to identify the Traitors in the manor.
For Mayes, she was particularly confident that she would have survived in the game longer if she had been chosen as a Traitor.
"I think I would have done very well as a Traitor," Mayes said. "If you are not a Traitor, you're like a sitting duck out there just waiting to be shot down from the sky."
"You're done, because you have no power. ... That's why when I wasn't chosen, I literally was not happy that night."
Catch up on The Traitors Canada on Crave
But the hope of being a Traitor wasn't the same for everyone. While many fans may have assumed that Martin, following his Big Brother Canada win and being a champion poker player, would have made him a great contender for a Traitor, he didn't want to play that role on Traitors Canada.
"I needed to play as a Faithful," Martin explained. "I had other things I wanted to prove to myself socially, connection with humans."
"They wanted me to be a Traitor. ... They were shocked, but they respected that decision and gave me the Faithful role. I wanted to get recruited though, I really wanted to get recruited at some point. I would love to join the dark side, I think it's a lot of fun. The Traitors are way more powerful, they have way more control in the game and I would love to experience that. But again, I just wanted to show how to play an aggressive Faithful game."
'I don't have a lot of hope for the Faithfuls'
At the end of last week's episode of Traitors Canada, Mai Nguyen says, "Why are we so bad at this game?" Meaning, why are the Faithfuls having so much trouble identifying the Traitors to banish from the game.
From Martin's perspective, he gave credit to the Traitors, fellow Big Brother Canada alum Kuzie Mujakachi, and Toronto magician and mentalist Mike D’Urzo, for playing a good game. He also revealed he didn't feel particularly confident in the Faithfuls to come out on top by the end of the season.
"There were just some bad players and the Traitors did a great job, they took out the best Faithfuls, ... the people that were actually working hard to put the puzzle together, and they kind of left some of the weaker players in the game," Martin said.
"I don't have a lot of hope for the Faithfuls going forward, to be honest. I really don't. I really don't know who's going to put this thing together. ... I think people were just really prioritizing survival, which is kind of what you have to do in this game. If there's a name out there and it's not you, kind of just jumping with the herd, that's really, really smart. But at some point you've got to play."
Throughout her time in the game, Mayes' approach was consistently to follow her own personal assessment of the gameplay.
"If I'm not a Traitor, I'm going to be the best Faithful and try to get whoever I can out before I'm murdered," she said. "I was going to try to be quiet, that was my original plan if I was chosen as a Faithful, ... but I'm not that person."
'I felt way more peace getting 11th on The Traitors than I did winning Big Brother Canada'
While Mayes was someone who was a fan of the U.S. version of The Traitors, which compelled her to accept the invitation to participate in the Canadian version of the game, things were different for Martin. For the reality TV veteran, it was more about building human connections.
"I didn't need the money. I didn't need the win, I won Big Brother, but in Big Brother Canada, at the end of the game I was by myself," Martin explained. "I had no allies for weeks and it was really traumatic, it was really painful."
"[In The Traitors Canada] people were fighting for me, they were fighting with me. We had alliances, people liked me. I was my authentic self and I've worked really hard in my life to find my authentic self, a version of myself that I'm really proud of."
Ultimately, Martin is proud of who he was on Traitors Canada.
"All this work I've done, all the therapy, all the meditation, all the working out. I've physically trained my mind, body and soul. I've been going after this so hard and I just feel so good," Martin said. "Even though my game fell apart, all these people liked me, they fought for me, we connected on a human level. That's the huge win."
"I felt way more peace getting 11th on The Traitors than I did winning Big Brother Canada."