Talking “Traitors” With Luke Toki, and What’s Next for the King of the Jungle

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by Stephanie Anderson
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It’s been one of the most frustrating weeks in “The Traitors'” history. On Sunday night, Annabel and Luke Toki went into the Banishment Ceremony with guns blazing. They correctly picked Sam and Blake the Traitors, but the Faithfuls didn’t believe them. Instead of voting for Sam, the Faithfuls banished Annabel.

Determined to go down swinging, Luke pulled the remaining Traitors aside after the Banishment Ceremony. There, he predicted the future: The Traitors were going to murder him, and the Faithfuls had one chance. They needed to throw all their votes on Sam at the next Banishment Ceremony. The Traitors did murder Luke, but the Faithfuls chose to banish Simone… another one of their own. We caught up with Luke to unpack the mess of it all, and to find out what’s next for the King of the Jungle.

On Who’s Going to Win, and the “Mind-Boggling” Mess the Faithfuls Have Made

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Luke thinks the Traitors are going to win.

“Oh God, look, to be honest, right now I think the Traitors have to win!” Luke told POPSUGAR Australia over the phone. “Unless one of the Faithfuls actually picks up their game and really starts organising or putting some kind of plan into play… “

He paused.

“I think after last night it was good to see Camille put some pressure on Sam, and it was good to see Simone put some pressure on, even though she went,” he added. “It just tripped me out that they actually went and voted her. I couldn’t understand it, it’s mind-boggling!”

The Most Baffling Faithful Votes

One of the more astounding moves, Luke said, was Keith choosing to vote for Simone.

“Keith going, ‘Now, I know everyone said that Sam, you’re a Traitor, but now I’m starting to think Simone!’ Like, what?!” he exclaimed. “How?!”

It was especially baffling, Luke said, because he didn’t feel that Sam and Keith were close enough that Sam would protect Keith from being murdered. It didn’t seem that there was any reason for Keith to vote for Simone seemingly out of the blue.

The fact that Keith was an undercover cop? It’s the icing on the cake that makes a ridiculous situation even more absurd.

“There’s some men sittin’ in jail right now, you can guarantee that!” he joked with a laugh. “Oh my God, he’ll hate that, he’ll HATE that!

“He’s actually a really nice guy, a really nice guy,” Luke added quickly. “I like Keith! And Liam?! Oh, I felt bad.”

He laughed.

“I said to Liam, ‘Look,’ because he was one of my close friends in there as well,” he recalled, saying that he’d “tried to direct him in the game” a little.

“I would’ve been very happy to take him into Traitor Towers if I’d gotten in there!” Luke added. “But he ended up deciding to go with Sam, and I’m like, ‘Now Sam’s taking the piss out of you on the show, and you’re backing him!’

“That is potentially… you made the worst decision ever!” he exclaimed. “And I feel bad for him, a little bit! Because he would be copping it at work! He would be copping it!”

He laughed.

“Oh, Liam.”

What We Didn’t Get to See on “The Traitors”

On “Australian Survivor”, the castaways are hungry and sleeping out in the elements. On “Big Brother VIP”, there’s a camera on the housemates at all times. “The Traitors”, on the other hand, is filmed at a luxe hotel.

While Luke’s days were filled with Traitor-hunting, his downtime was spent befriending the local birds.

“I would wake up in the morning really early and I would get fruit and stuff in my room, and I would cut it up into little pieces,” Luke said. “I had a window, and I’d put all the fruit along the window and all the birds would fly down and eat it! And I’d be drinking coffee with the birds, they got so comfortable with me!”

Was Luke in his Disney Princess era? He laughed.

“Yeah I was!” he exclaimed. “Yeah, every morning I would sing a song!”

After singing a few lines of “Let It Go”, he added: “And that’s what made my days really cool, was that every morning I’d watch these birds come in and pick at the fruit!”

What’s Next for Luke

Back in 2021, Luke announced that he was retiring from reality television. Having un-retired for “The Traitors Australia”, is he moving back into reality retirement now?

“I’ll always dig these shows,” Luke said. “I feel like… people like to see me on these things because they like to see the brainwork, and, I don’t know! I take every day as it comes.”

As for what’s next on the agenda, though, Luke is about to start training for a charity boxing fight in November.

“It’s called Strong Minds, I’ve been the commentator for the last two years, and they raise a lot of money for mental health and lots of different charities,” he said. “But this year’s going to be a good one, a big one! I’ve decided to get out from under the mic and being the commentator, raise some money for charity later this year and get in the ring this time!

“It’ll be a fun night, a bit of entertainment!” he added.

Would Luke’s Wife Mary Ever Compete on Reality TV?

Over the course of Luke’s four stints on reality television, we’ve gotten to know a bit about his wife Mary, as well as their three children. It made us curious: Would Luke and Mary ever compete on a show together? Could we see them on “The Amazing Race”?

“Can you imagine me and Mary on there?!” Luke exclaimed. “Do you know what’s crazy, I think that Mary would be very good TV, but in a total different way than I am.”

Noting that “she’s very strong” and “very switched on”, Luke said that he and Mary are “the complete opposites in every way” when it comes to their personalities.

“I don’t know how to explain it — an introvert and an extrovert, but in such a high… intense introverts and intense extroverts!” he said. “So I think she would be fabulous.”

Luke Would Love to See Mary Compete

Luke went on to say that he’d love producers to ask Mary to compete, regardless of whether he was also asked.

“I would LOVE to see her on ‘Survivor’, even!” he added.

As for whether we’d see them on “Blood Vs Water” if “Australian Survivor” chose that format again?

“Oh God, imagine that!” Luke said with a laugh. “I already told her at home, ‘I’d be votin’ you off, Day 1!”

He continued: “I actually think that we would both try to get each other out the whole show! Rather than stick with each other! It would be, ‘You never listen to me! I told you we were gonna vote out whatshername!’ you know? We’d build alliances to try to get each other out, that’s exactly how the show would go!”

He laughed.

“Trust me, it’d be worse than ‘MAFS!'”

“The Traitors Australia” continues at 7.30pm on Sunday, September 3, only on 10 and 10 Play on Demand. Miss an episode? Catch up on 10 Play.

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