Celebrity Traitors live: Cliffhanger leaves viewers braced for first major twist murder in episode 2 – UK Times

Aside from Alan Carr’s exploits, Cat Burns was possibly the biggest talking point of episode one. The 25-year-old showed maturity beyond her age after showing composure when being selected as a traitor.

The musician had her first hit with her 2020 single “Go”, which gained increased popularity on TikTok and eventually reached number two in the UK singles chart in 2022.

The Streatham-born singer was nominated for a Brit Award for the song in 2023, and was also recognised in the British Pop/R&B Act and Rising Star categories in the same year. She released her debut album Early Twenties last year.

Fans have already earmarked her as a favourite to win the show and she already appears to be sticking to her strategy. Before the show, she told the BBC: “My strategy, if I am a Traitor, would be to just try and go under the radar, not draw too much attention to myself, but also give out names of people who I think could be Traitors.”

With his sweat-drenched, awkward performance as an unlikely backstabber, the comedian is the unrivalled highlight of the star-studded new series, writes Helen Coffey

Irish actor Ruth Codd is possibly the biggest unknown entity on Celebrity Traitors, having only risen to fame after loving her job as a barber and make-up artist during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The 29-year-old began posting videos on TikTok after being made redundant and, within a year, had more than 670,000 followers.

She was discovered by casting agents and placed in the role of Anya in the Netflix thriller series The Midnight Club before going on to play Juno Usher in the 2023 Edgar Allan Poe adaptation miniseries The Fall of the House of Usher.

Although she went under the radar in the first episode, Codd’s unique look certainly caught the eye whenever she was on the screen. Let’s hope we see more of her over the next eight episodes.

One of the only disappointments of episode one was that YouTuber Niko Omilana wasn’t selected as a traitor, but if he is, then we’ll be in for a treat.

The content creator, 27, has carved out a niche with his undercover pranks, infiltrating far-right protests in London – in disguise as a white man – to the lift the lid on racism in Britain. In 2018, he went viral after he posted his video “Undercover as a racist for 24 hours”, which shows protesters growing violent towards him when his mask slips.

He most notably grabbed headlines in 2021 when he ran for Mayor of London, achieving an impressive 49,628 votes. In the 2024 general election, he ran against then-Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, obtaining 160 votes. He attracted more attention, though, when he held up a “L” sign behind Sunak, referring to the MP as a loser.

While Niko is one of the lesser-known contestants on The Traitors, he was delighted when Stephen Fry knew his work. “Stephen knows who I am! I wanted to be unknown to everyone; now everyone’s going to see me as a conniving prankster.”

Ahh, Tameka. She’s already such a joy in this series. Who can forget her already iconic episode one line: “Yes, Claudia. Strut away”. Or when she happily confirmed that the group will exploit Tom Daley’s athleticism “for anything”.

Most BBC viewers will be more familiar with her as Kim Fox in EastEnders, a role she has played since 2009, winning numerous awards, including the 2012 Inside Soap gong for Funniest Female Performance.

Speaking to the BBC ahead of the show’s launch Empson admitted that she didn’t know why she joined Celebrity Traitors but had become hooked on the show after watching series two.

Amusingly, she said she’ll refuse to go out first even if she is eliminated: “I hope Claudia is good at improvisation, because I am not going out first. I just won’t go. I will just refuse. It’s going to be different. Yeah, sorry everyone but I’m staying. How about that plot twist?!”

Let’s hope the BBC have a contingency plan in case she’s ousted tonight.

Episode one attracted 6.1 million viewers on Wednesday night, reports TV ratings journalist Liam Hamilton and 46 per cent of all viewers across the 9pm slot. This is also one million up on the last civilian series, which aired in January.

It’s safe to say that Alan Carr stole the show in the debut episode. The comedian already had viewers in hysterics after claiming he wanted to be a traitor – and then struggled with the reality after host Claudia Winkleman made him one.

Viewers are already calling him the highlight of the series so far and worth the licence fee alone.

Jacob Stolworthy rounds up the best reactions:

The three backstabbing stars have been selected by the Celebrity Traitors host.

Jacob Stolworthy has all the info you’ll need on the deadly trio:

The starry spin-off of the BBC hit stays faithful to the original formula – and it’s such a delight to be back at Ardross Castle, writes Katie Rosseinsky

“This has thrown the cat amongst the pigeons – I was having such a lovely night,” says Alan Carr as he’s sent off to kill The Traitors first victim.

Who that person is will remain a mystery until Thursday’s episode.