Celebrity Traitors continued on Thursday with the cast once again failing to find the Traitors, and setting a record for the most Faithfuls eliminated.
The latest episode started dramatically as a tense roundtable vote saw Line of Duty actor Mark Bonnar banished by fate after the group failed to decide between him and historian David Olusoga.
Shortly after this, the secret trio of Traitors, Jonathan Ross, Alan Carr and Cat Burns, decided to murder comedian Joe Wilkinson, who had started to raise strong suspicions of the Traitors’ identities.
In a shocking conclusion, Stephen Fry became arguably the biggest name to be banished from the game, after receiving four votes during the roundtable.
“To be part of such a group is a privilege, an honour, and a deep delight and pleasure. Thank you, and no hard feelings, I promise,” said the 68-year-old. “I am, of course, as I have told you all, a Faithful.”
This means that, after six episodes, 10 Faithfuls have either been banished or “murdered” without a single Traitor being successfully ousted. Statistically, this means the current cast are the worst-performing set of contestants in the show’s history.
In 2022’s debut series, the contestants lost eight Faithfuls before finally discovering a Traitor. In season two, which was won by Harry Clark, the group lost only four Faithfuls before a Traitor was unmasked.
Then, in season three, which aired earlier this year, the Faithfuls again managed to lose only four members of their clan before finding a Traitor.
With only three episodes left and just nine contestants remaining, the Faithfuls need to work together to oust either Ross, Carr or Burns. However, Thursday’s episode ended on a cliffhanger, with actor Nick Mohammed, comedian Lucy Beaumont and broadcaster Kate Garraway invited to meet host Claudia Winkleman back at the giant chessboard, in the dead of night, where one of them is to be murdered by the Traitors during next week’s episode.
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During the episode, suspicions turned on Mohammed, 45, after he admitted he had “deliberately sabotaged” the day’s mission having reasoned that his actions would likely help the Faithfuls and hinder the Traitors.
In a Chessboard Challenge, players had to correctly guess the answers to questions in order to win money for the charity prize pot.
The group was split into two, with Winkleman, 53, revealing that the winning team would be saved from murder, meaning that the Traitors would have to select their next murder victim from the Faithfuls in the losing team.
Both teams got the first two questions right, and rugby star Joe Marler and Mohammed were put forward to answer the next questions on behalf of their teams. Mohammed turned to Marler and whispered, “I’ll let you win,” later explaining to the players that he had thought there were more Traitors in his own team.
The celebrities were asked who they thought was “the leader of the pack”, and Mohammed put his gravestone chess piece on a square that said “Jonathan”, while Marler put his team’s piece on the correct square, which said “Stephen”, meaning Marler’s team won.
The Celebrity Traitors continues next Wednesday and Thursday at 9pm on BBC One and iPlayer.