The Celebrity Traitors reaches its finale Friday on BBC One, and the three players seen as most trusted in recent episodes are Maya Jama, James Acaster and King Kenny, who were also among the show’s traitors. The BBC series, hosted by Claudia Winkleman, sets 21 famous contestants loose in Ardross Castle in the Scottish Highlands, where hidden traitors “murder” faithful players each night. The winners share a prize of up to £100,000 for charity.
The season has built steadily toward this point. Jama and Richard E. Grant were the first two traitors named, and they recruited Acaster after a face-to-face meeting in which he and journalist Amol Rajan pleaded their cases. Rajan became the first victim. Acaster said he felt relief at seeing Jama, since no one suspects her, while he called Grant a “loose cannon.”
Trust has paid off for the traitors. Fellow contestants named Jama, Acaster and Kenny the most trusted players in a recent challenge, and the group earned a special power. They gave Kenny a dagger that grants a double vote at the roundtable. He then held the deciding vote in a standoff between actress Sharon Rooney and comedian Joanne McNally after both received equal votes. The traitors also murdered comedian Miranda Hart, saying she was a good detective.
The second season arrives with a lot to match. The premiere drew an average of 8.9 million viewers, the biggest debut for any version of the program in the UK, according to the BBC. The first celebrity series ended last year with a finale that peaked at 15.4 million viewers and ranked as the biggest TV audience of 2025. Comedian Alan Carr won that edition.
The ensemble includes Bella Ramsey, James Blunt, Julie Hesmondhalgh, Leigh-Anne Pinnock and comedians Joe Lycett, Rob Beckett and Romesh Ranganathan. The BBC has not said how the penultimate episode, scheduled Thursday, resolves the Rooney and McNally vote. Faithfuls have grown doubtful of one another, yet the traitors have so far avoided serious suspicion.
