Dolores Catania Talks Filming 'The Traitors': 'The Game Becomes Your Life'

Dolores Catania is thrilled for fans to see The Traitors as the future of The Real Housewives of New Jersey remains uncertain.

“You’ll see me in January. I started watching it [past seasons] and I went crazy for it,” Dolores, 53, exclusively told Us Weekly at the 2024 MTV Video Music Awards on Wednesday, September 11. “It was the best experience.”

Dolores said her time on Peacock’s The Traitors “was different” from filming a reality show for Bravo.

“It takes you away from everything and then you get there and the game becomes your life,” she explained. “And it was nice to get away from what I was involved with at the time — a lot of the fighting and craziness.”

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Not being allowed to have her phone made the experience even more interesting. “I had a lot of alone time, a lot of self-reflection and a lot of thinking,” Dolores recalled. “I can’t wait to see you at it.”

Peacock confirmed in June that Dolores was joining season 3 of The Traitors alongside fellow Housewives Robyn Dixon, Dorinda Medley and Chanel Ayan. The other contestants include Bachelor Nation stars Wells Adams and Gabby Windey, Summer House’s Ciara Miller and Selling Sunset’s Chrishell Stause.

Traitors will also feature Survivor’s Rob Mariano (Boston Rob), Jeremy Collins, Carolyn Wiger and Tony Vlachos, RuPaul’s Drag Race star Bob the Drag Queen, Big Brother’s Britney Haynes and Danielle Reyes, The Biggest Loser alum Bob Harper, Zac Efron’s brother Dylan Efron, British aristocrat Lord Ivar Mountbatten, Britney Spears’ ex Sam Asghari and former WWE star Nikki Garcia.

The opportunity to join The Traitors could not have come at a better time for Dolores as season 14 of RHONJ marked a major change for the show with Melissa Gorga and Teresa Giudice refusing to share the screen for the first time. The feud extended to the rest of the cast, which included Dolores, Margaret Josephs, Jennifer Aydin, Danielle Cabral, Rachel Fuda, Jackie Goldschneider and Jennifer Fessler.

“The problem is [RHONJ] is about real-life problems, fighting and resolution,” Dolores told Us on Wednesday. “We couldn’t come to resolutions and we also didn’t have a cast trip.”

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Bravo has yet to announce any plans for season 15 of RHONJ, but Dolores is hopeful that she will be back.

“I see it coming back because it was too good. In a perfect world, I feel we’re an ensemble cast. I would like for us to all come back, but that’s not up to me. I think after maybe some downtime, that would help,” she said.

Dolores isn’t sure what is next for her now that there’s no new season to look forward to.

I’m trying to get used to not working. I never called it work. I’m trying to get used to not having that lifestyle that I’m so used to for eight years,” she revealed to Us. “It’s different. You feel bad and I miss what I did. Is this what happens when people retire?”

With reporting by Christina Garibaldi