Celebrity Traitors is a shock phenomenon – and the finale will be spectacular

Warning: spoilers ahead for tonight’s episode of Celebrity Traitors. 

I know all good things must come to an end, but must that include Celebrity Traitors?

Tonight, the BBC series confirmed who the five finalists are after one more savage murder occurred in plain sight, and then yet another Faithful was banished. 

It seems like rooting out Jonathan Ross as a Traitor was a one-time fluke. 

The end of tonight’s episode – which saw Alan Carr, Cat Burns, Joe Marler, Nick Mohammed and David Olusoga survive after Celia Imrie’s murder and Kate Garraway’s banishment – has convinced me of one thing: the finale is going to be the TV moment of 2025.

I can see several different possible outcomes right now. 

On one hand Joe, Nick and David could pull a blinder, suss out Alan and Cat and split the charity money between them, seizing victory for the Faithfuls.

Alternatively, Cat and Alan make it to the end, having pledged to go halves on the prize… but then the ever strategic Cat could decide to betray Alan at the last minute and take the jackpot all for herself.

I’ll be donning my cloak and lifting my lantern next week, on Thursday evening, that rare night when millions of people across the country are all watching the same programme at the same time – a phenomenon as rare as Alan not giggling whenever someone asks if he’s a Traitor.

Before Celebrity Traitors began, there was mounds of excitement. How could there not be? A star-studded take on a murder mystery gameshow that scores of people already know and love.

However, I think it’s fair to say that no one had any idea of just how tremendous this inaugural season of the celebrity version would be.

As a TV journalist, I often find myself in a bit of an entertainment bubble, under the assumption that everyone I know is watching all of the same massive shows that I am.

I didn’t realise how many of my friends have never actually watched The Traitors.

But while attending a dinner party for a friend’s birthday a few days after Celebrity Traitors premiered, I was shocked when I wasn’t the first person to bring it up. ‘Are you watching it?’ one friend exclaimed. ‘Alan Carr is hilarious!’ another laughed.

My grandpa, the toughest TV critic I know, might not have enjoyed the one episode that he tuned in to watch, but it brought me so much joy that he was the one who brought it up to me while we had one of our regular phone catch-ups.

Whether you’re watching Celebrity Traitors or not, almost everyone is talking about it. In today’s TV landscape, that is extremely rare.

TV critic and broadcaster Scott Bryan summarised the feeling perfectly when he tweeted on October 15: ‘One thing I love about Celebrity Traitors is that it is everyone around the television watching it live reacting all at the same time.

‘There’s a special energy I can’t describe. It’s why I dedicate my career to talking and reporting on this medium. Can’t beat it.’

No matter which direction Celebrity Traitors goes when the finale finally arrives in a week, it’s bound to be a TV spectacle that none of us will ever forget – that kind of ratings-smash water cooler moment that it seems like the whole country is watching. 

Rugby star Joe has been one of my MVPs since the start of the game. I knew nothing about him before the season began, and then in my eyes, he very quickly became a dark horse. 

Two weeks ago, I wrote about how he could be the game’s ‘deadliest threat’, after his ‘big dog theory’. Considering how much this theory impacted the subsequent roundtables, I’d say that prediction turned out to be true.

Tonight, he jumped into action yet again. Pulling David and Nick aside separately, he told them both that he’s convinced that Cat and Alan are the Traitors. Alarm bells resounded in my head.

If Joe sticks to his guns, rather than deciding to throw out a rogue vote for someone he was far less suspicious of (like he’s done before), his revelation could spell an end to the Traitors’ scheming ways, just in time to stop them from getting their hands on the money for charity.

But, Alan and Cat have found themselves in tight corners before, and managed to escape.

Perhaps their luck will take them all the way through to the final firepit, and they’ll convince Nick or David that they haven’t been lying to their faces the entire time.

The slightest little slip-up could completely flip the final. As much as I enjoy making correct predictions, it is so much fun when the series pulls the rug from under our feet. 

I want all the drama, and I know the finale’s going to give it to me.

The Celebrity Traitors finale airs on Thursday November 6 at 9pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer

Do you have a story you’d like to share? Get in touch by emailing Ross.Mccafferty@metro.co.uk. 

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