Celebrity Traitors: Why are the faithfuls such a flop?

Published on 4, November, 2025

Celebrity Traitors concludes this week following a series dominated by ‘flawed faithfuls’ failing to identify their treacherous nemeses.

Here Dr Stephanie Farnsworth, Lecturer in Media and Communications at the University of Sunderland, examines why this year’s line-up proved such a flop in the backstabbing stakes.

"The air is crisp, the leaves are turning to gold and blood red, and gardens are adorned with ghosts and (fake) cobwebs.

As autumn approaches, the mood has turned spooky and there is not a better way to approach the darkness of the end of the year than with a game of murder and betrayal. And so, The Traitors returned to our screens but this time it was celebrities rather than civilians taking part.  

There does, at first glance, seem to be a huge difference between the civilians and celebrities. This could be the worst group of faithfuls ever. They broke the record for how long it took them to root out a traitor, despite Jonathan Ross and Alan Carr giggling away at their own chaos.

Because the traitors (comprised of TV presenter Jonathan Ross, TV presenter and comedian Alan Carr, and singer song-writer Cat Burns) remained undetected for so long, viewers were deprived of the usual twists and turns of the traitors. There was no backstabbing, no recruitment, no real need to throw each other under the bus – and because of that, each episode relied upon Celia Imrie to provide the source of entertainment through her wit and charm.  

But why is this series so different?

The beautiful Gothic themes remain; challenges with haunting voices, dilapidated cabins, and even towering chess pieces returned. The stage was set for multiple evenings of tragedy and betrayal, but instead, everything was rather nice.

Twice Claudia Winkleman had to tell the contestants off for being too nice and passive in their efforts to root out a traitor. The faithfuls lamented a lack of evidence and consistently went after wild targets despite first having accurate guesses. The result is that one by one the faithfuls fell. 

Perhaps it was inevitable that the celebrities would be bad at that. Celebrities rarely manage their own social media accounts, and are often unaware of the constant perils facing those online who need promotion to build a platform.

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Celebrities often escape criticism, working in an industry dependent on niceties and fake smiles. They are also likely aware that whoever they accuse may be someone they want to work with in the future. With the inexperience of dealing with backstabbers, with a reliance on a world that gives each other a leg up, the celebrities seemed adrift. 

Except for writer Nick Mohammed and for rugby player Jo Marler, who may have played the game the best of any faithfuls. As they approach the final, they know who the traitors are and we await to see whether they root them out – taking the prize for their charities instead.

They’d hidden behind the cluelessness of the other contestants. Joe, in particular, the most ‘new’ to the celebrity world, with a career not dependent on television shows and fawning to presenters. Jo has, instead, been called out for his hostilities, but his refusal to play the celebrity game, in favour of playing The Traitors, is the only hope that the faithfuls have. 

The lack of drama this season has been somewhat disappointing, but it has been revealing. The Traitors works best as an entertainment when people feel like they have something to lose. It is a lighter Squid Game, with no real murders but a cash prize and public platform for civilians often not in the spotlight. The celebrities main concern is likely coming out of the series with their image intact.

For any fans and scholars of the Gothic, this series might not quite have scratched the itch for the dark and grim."