Celebrity Traitors bosses forced to ‘scrap’ cliffhanger after ‘unthinkable’ moment
Joanne McNally, Maya Jama, Julie Hesmondhalgh and Hannah Fry on Celebrity Traitors (BBC/Studio Lambert/Euan Cherry)
Celebrity Traitors producers have reportedly ditched a planned cliffhanger after an “unthinkable” incident during filming forced them to change their edit to accommodate an “epic moment” later in the series.
Already, the 2026 series has seen potentially the biggest shocker ever when Richard E Grant revealed he was a Traitor to his co-stars, before having to try and backtrack.
Friday’s episode ended with a cliffhanger at the roundtable for the first banishment, with it looking pretty certain that Grant’s time was up. Viewers will have to tune in tonight to find out his fate.
And it seems there are even more intense moments to come.
A source told The Sun: “During filming, something so unbelievable happened even execs didn’t see it coming. It forced them to throw plans out the window to accommodate the epic moment – which should make great TV.”
The moment will reportedly air later in the series.
Why do Traitors cliffhangers change?
Speaking at the launch of the series, executive producer Sarah Fay explained that cliffhangers can be mapped out in advance, but the team has to stay flexible once the game starts shifting.
“We always have an idea before going into pre-production what might be cliffhangers but we have to be so reactive because who knows what the story is going to be,” Fay said.
She added: “Last year we went to deadlock [at the Round Table] when it was down to David [Olusoga] and Mark [Bonner] where it was a tie.”
When is The Celebrity Traitors on BBC One?
The Celebrity Traitors continues on BBC One at 8pm on Thursday (8 October), with viewers set to see the resolution of last week’s round-table cliffhanger.
The celebrity spin-off is filmed at Ardross Castle in the Highlands and follows the same paranoia-fuelled format as the civilian series, with Traitors plotting in secret while Faithfuls try to identify them before the next banishment.
The new run began last week with 21 celebrities arriving at the castle, including Myha’la, Bella Ramsey, Joe Lycett and Sebastian Croft.
The series was filmed in May, and the launch episode peaked at just over 9million viewers and averaged 8.9million overnight.
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