The real dark horse of Celebrity Traitors season 2 is someone you won’t expect

Celebrity Traitors is the one show that can take a national treasure like Alan Carr and somehow turn him into an even bigger superstar.

Rugby ace Joe Marler and singer Cat Burns were arguably the two cast members who became infinitely more famous overnight as two of the most popular characters: a determined Faithful and a perfect Traitor, respectively.

Tonight, 21 more famous faces will be entering Ardross Castle to try and win a slice of a potential £100,000 prize pot for the charity of their choice, with a phenomenal line-up boasting even more star power than the first, including Richard E Grant, Miranda Hart, Joe Lycett, Jerry Hall and Michael Sheen.

But there’s one star who’s been buried in the hype, despite having the potential to go all the way, win and ride the same wave of success as last year’s unlikeliest champion, Alan. That star is Irish comedian Joanne McNally, one of the sharpest, smartest and funniest comics we have.

Joanne has gradually gathered an enormously loyal following from hosting the podcast My Therapist Ghosted Me with her best friend Vogue Williams.

Their unfiltered chat about their own lives and the week’s most talked-about pop culture moments has become so insanely popular that they’ve taken their show to huge arenas, while Joanne has broken unthinkable records on her own as a stand-up, being the first female comic to sell out three headline nights at Dublin’s 3Arena.

For her Pinotphile tour earlier this year, she sold out London’s Hammersmith Apollo so many times she could have just filled Wembley Stadium instead.

Somehow, though, she’s probably one of the least-known names on the line-up. Despite her fiercely devoted fanbase, she’s not quite yet a household name.

That is all about to change, or at least it should, once she finally gets the primetime slot she deserves on Celebrity Traitors. Unless she gets banished at the first roundtable or becomes the first victim to be murdered by whoever Claudia Winkleman taps on the shoulder, I have absolutely no doubt she will be the biggest breakout star across any series of The Traitors, even if you’d be forgiven for forgetting she’s going to be on it.

Even Joanne herself called out the BBC for how little airtime she was given in the show’s glossy trailer released earlier this month.

Taking to Instagram, she wrote a caption over the trailer: ‘I’m starting to think I wasn’t actually in @ukthetraitors at all and it was all a fever dream!’

In the video, she complained that every time a new trailer drops, her excitement is instantly crushed. ‘Probably, maybe they’re like, she makes such an impact on the show that we don’t want to oversaturate her at this stage. I’m sure it’s fine,’ she said.

‘I did do it, didn’t I? Imagine if I tried to text Maya Jama now and she’s like, “Who is this?” I was like, oh my god, I made the whole thing up in my head.’

Her totally justified upset could tell us two things: she knows full well what this opportunity will bring to her career, and that clearly, in her opinion, she has made a massive impact in this series.

I would love to see Joanne in the turret killing off Faithfuls; she is so cutting, so effortlessly clever and would be such a brilliant choice for a Traitor. I imagine she’ll be hugely underestimated by any player who isn’t as familiar with her work as I am, but will also very quickly become popular enough with the Faithful that, unless she accidentally declares ‘I’m a Traitor’ for no rhyme or reason whatsoever, I can’t see her getting banished from a roundtable very easily either.

If she’s a Faithful though, will the Traitors see her as too much of a threat? If this year’s killers are anything like Alan, Cat and Jonathan Ross, they’ll be gunning for the ‘big dogs’ first. I’d be most worried for the Michael Sheens and Richard E Grants of the game if they’re not chosen to be the ones pulling the strings.

Either way, there isn’t a chance Joanne will slip under the radar. If anything, I can absolutely imagine she’ll be the unofficial narrator of the series; her commentary on anything is so cutting and painfully funny, and she will undoubtedly be one of the loudest players at the roundtable.

She might not have appeared in the trailer much, but Celebrity Traitors will be missing a trick if it doesn’t put her front and centre of the show itself.

Could she go all the way and win? Right now, the bookies seem to think so, based on what very little information they have.

I think it’s impossible to say at this stage without any insider info, which, sadly, I do not have. But I do have a sneaking suspicion, as somewhat of a Traitors specialist, that she has all the qualities of a player who will go extremely far and, wherever she lands, will be one of the greatest characters of this entire series.

If you’re about to meet Joanne McNally for the first time, buckle up: you are in for the time of your life.

Celebrity Traitors season 2 launches tonight at 8pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.