From the moment Shane Gould set foot on The Traitors Australia set, there were mixed opinions of her. For those who watched her masterful winning season of Survivor in 2018, the former Australian Olympian was absolutely one to watch. But for the others, who may not be as into other strategic reality shows, Shane appeared to be a softly spoken older woman who didn’t seem like an immediate threat.
If you ask Shane, this was always going to be her strategy. Well, until the group collectively decided that she was the “most virtuous”. She was tasked with the difficult choice to save herself and send someone home, or leave the competition before it began. In the end, she chose to send former Married At First Sight star and noted nice guy Cam Merchant packing. But now, after being the first to be booted from the show, Shane believes sending Cam home was the beginning of the end of her Traitors journey.
“It was a moral dilemma. It was just a really difficult thing but I had to make the decision in the moment,” Shane explains to TV WEEK.
“I could’ve chosen myself. That would’ve been really virtuous, you know? But I didn’t nominate myself as the most virtuous. I could’ve said no, but I thought it was interesting.”
How Shane Gould felt sending Cam Merchant home
Once the decision was made, Shane says she felt terrible. But she also admits that it threw a spanner in the works for her gameplan to go unnoticed through the competition.
“It was like the rug was pulled out from under my feet. I had hoped to be a little bit more under the radar. And, honestly, I just felt bad for Cam,” she explains.
“I didn’t even know his name at the time, it was just a random pick. But I must admit, I did have my eye on Gamble.”
From that moment, Shane tried to get to connect with her fellow contestants but when it came time to vote out any suspected traitors, she received the most votes.
“After I got four or five votes, I thought, ‘Oh dear’,” Shane recalls.
“It was a shock and that was when reality hit me and I realised that I hadn’t read this right. I hadn’t realised there was all that subterfuge going on and I was blindsided. But more than that, I felt stupid for not reading it differently.
“I was really down on myself. As each vote came up and everybody was making comments, I was thinking, ‘Oh, am I really like that?’ Reality TV puts you in situations where you really question yourself, and you need to be tough, resilient and confident in yourself because it can be really hurtful.”
Thankfully, Shane says that things between her and Cam are totally fine. Months after filming, they reconnected at the premiere of the first episode.
“I was able to explain to him how I made that decision,” Shane says, noting that he took it like a champ.
“He was really understanding. He was quite mature about it but I did apologise and said that I hope he came back and had a second go at it.”
Would Shane Gould do anything differently if she had her time on Traitors again?
Watching the series back with the rest of Australia, the Olympic gold medallist has come to the conclusion that things could have been very different for her if she made the decision to send herself home, rather than Cam.
“I think if I made that decision and walked away, it might have made a difference if I had the opportunity to return to the game,” Shane explains.
Well, I guess we’ll never know.
You can watch The Traitors Australia on 10 and 10Play.
