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The Fortune Hotel in fresh fakery row as ITV boss reveals how show tricks viewers amid string of complaints
The show has seen criticism for being too similar to BBC rival The Traitors
THE Fortune Hotel has found itself embroiled in a brand new fakery row as one of the show's head honchos let slip that not everything is as it seems.
ITV's glossy new big-money show is all about contestants lying and deceiving their way through the game in order to walk home with an epic prize of £250,000.
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However, it seems that the lies and deceptions actually begun way earlier with ITV bosses pulling a clever trick to fool those watching along at home.
Fans of the show have watched on as one couple hold the golden suitcase purported to contain a staggering quarter of a million pounds but in fact that could not be further from the truth.
One of the show's top bosses has confessed that it in fact only contained £5,000 at any given time.
Current forutne holders, Jo-Anne and Will, have been seen oggling up the money in the case on more than one occasion but only the top layer contained real cash.
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A stream of £50 notes were placed at the top of the case but the rest of the notes were completely fake and just paper.
Bosses are understood to have made the decision as a result of the programme being filming in the gorgeous surroundings of the Caribbean island Grenada which has developed a reputation for random bag thefts and crafty distraction techniques in order to steal other's property.
Letting slip, series editor Ben Wilson said: "I have to admit we only had about £5,000 in the briefcase.
"It was not the real £250,000. You would not take real money.
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"It was real money on top only.
"I mean you can lose a bag on holiday.
I tried to crack the case at the Fortune Hotel - one error 'cost me' the £250k TV prize
"The contestants treated the money in the case was the £250,000 though and it was gathered up and collected every day.”
The show, hosted by Stephen Mangan, follows a group of pairing as they bask in glorious surroundings in a five-star luxury Grenada hotel all whilst trying to work out which briefcase amongst them contains the financial prize.
Through a series of challenges played out in each episode, the pairs have the chance to swap cases and take a secret look inside those of their competitors in order to better their chances of getting the money.
Each episode of The Fortune Hotel ends with the nerve-shredding case swap in the Lady Luck bar, where each pair must decide whether to keep or swap their case with the order of who gets to choose determined by the results of the earlier challenges.
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Whoever holds the £250,000 in their case at the end of the game wins and pockets it all.
However, so far, the reception for the show has been mixed with many quick to compare it to BBC reality juggernaut The Traitors - which follows a very similar concept.
Flooding social media with comments, one said: "Thought I’d give #TheFortuneHotel a go and I’ve turned it off already. It’s like a cr*p Traitors knock off with the sort of contestants that you’d find on that awful trash that is Love Island."
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A second fumed: "Sorry but you’ve lost my respect you’re not original and just a copy cat of The Traitors which will ALWAYS be better. Yawn. Boring. Try better."
"Well it’s just The Traitors with less clothes and weirder people right," said a third.
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