The finale of “The Celebrity Traitors” airs tonight, closing out “what has felt like a timely national bonding experience”, said Phil Harrison in The Guardian. While Elon Musk may be “adamant that civil war in the UK is inevitable”, we know it’s not as “we’re all too busy watching Celia Imrie screech into a well”.
The hit reality game show has swerved from its “civilian iteration” to cast everyone from Stephen Fry and Clare Balding to Cat Burns and Jonathan Ross in the UK’s first star-studded version. And although the celebrity Faithfuls have struggled – taking a long time to root out even one of the Traitors – it’s been fun watching the big names take part.
The first four episodes had an average audience of 12.6 million, making it the UK’s most-watched TV show of the year even before the finale. The celebrity version has confirmed what the “civilian series” suggested: “this is one of the most immaculate small-screen entertainment formats ever devised”.
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‘Staggering’ ineptitude
When rumours first started to swirl about a celebrity version, “we had some massive reservations”, said Laura Jane Turner in the Digital Spy. But “we’re prepared to admit when we are wrong”. Does the allure of the format hold when celebrities get involved? “Thank goodness, yes!”
The celebrities bring something previous contestants couldn’t: “prior knowledge about their fellow game-players”. So, familiarity from outside the show can “make or break alliances” and “pre-conceived ideas could influence the hunt” at the nightly Round Tables.
“The sheer ineptitude on display has been staggering – and oddly endearing”, said Harrison in The Guardian. From David Olusoga’s “torturous circular monologues” to Kate Garraway – “a literal news journalist, lest we forget” – blundering around “like someone trying to burst a birthday piñata during a bomb disposal operation”, the Faithfuls haven’t exactly mastered the art of Traitor-spotting.
But everything from the Banishments to the daily team challenges has improved with the addition of star power, said Emily Baker in The i Paper. “While it’s boring to watch Sally from Southampton” attempt physical challenges, “it is altogether thrilling to watch Fry and his fellow famouses get stuck in”. The idea of celebrities taking over the game “ruffled my feathers at first” but I have “never been more glad to be wrong”.
‘Manna from TV scheduling heaven’
The “cloak-swishing” game of deception quickly became “the ultimate watercooler series”, said Barbara Ellen in The Observer. And the celebrity season is “the ultimate broadcasting unicorn: ‘appointment telly’”, with viewers “obediently sitting down to watch episodes on the night” each one is dropped.
Perhaps the show’s inherent “isolation and paranoia” resonates with our “post-Covid generation”? Perhaps it has a particular appeal for the “‘cosy crime’ home nation of Agatha Christie”? Or maybe it’s simply because it’s “a televisual microscope-slide of human nature at its worst, and suggestibility at its strongest”?
So many little moments have made it into “TV folklore”. From Alan Carr’s mounting glee at being a Traitor to Paloma Faith’s “fury at being killed first” and Celia Imrie’s unforgettable fart, the season has been “manna from autumn TV scheduling heaven”.
In tonight’s final episode, we should see a Round Table and then a firepit “outdoor extravaganza, as we whittle” the last five players down, said Tim Glanfield in The Times. At least, that is the “standard” format “but this is ‘The Traitors’, so we should expect the unexpected”. Host Claudia Winkleman could easily throw a spanner in the works and, if she does, “all bets are off and anything could happen”.
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