The Celebrity Traitors final airs on BBC One and iPlayer at 8pm tonight. Claudia Winkleman will crown a winner at Ardross Castle, then walk the finalists into The Celebrity Traitors: Uncloaked, with Ed Gamble and a studio audience, as soon as the credits roll. The series that started with 21 famous faces is down to seven.
Thursday's penultimate episode did the sorting. James Acaster, 41, told the round table he was a traitor, struggled to defend himself in a row about Ross Kemp's murder in plain sight, and was banished. Our preview of that episode set the stakes. The episode itself removed the comedian who had looked, for a fortnight, like the person most likely to talk his way to the end.
Who is left for the Celebrity Traitors final
Two traitors remain: the presenter Maya Jama and the content creator King Kenny. Five faithfuls are still in the game: James Blunt, Leigh-Anne Pinnock, Michael Sheen, Romesh Ranganathan and Sebastian Croft. Viewers were not shown who Jama and King Kenny planned to murder at the end of Thursday's programme, so Friday can open with an empty chair.
Jama spent the early part of Thursday under suspicion, then raised a glass with the line "To killing them, banishing them even." It was the sort of toast that either ends a traitor's game or becomes the clip people send each other when she wins. King Kenny has been the quieter of the two. In a final, quiet is often the more useful trait.
How to Watch, and What Is at Stake
- The Celebrity Traitors final: BBC One and BBC iPlayer, Friday 30 October, 8pm.
- Uncloaked follows at once, with Claudia Winkleman, Ed Gamble, the finalists and a studio audience.
- Traitors still standing: Maya Jama and King Kenny.
- Faithfuls: James Blunt, Leigh-Anne Pinnock, Michael Sheen, Romesh Ranganathan, Sebastian Croft.
- Thursday's mission added 5,000 pounds. The pot is 64,500 pounds, towards a charity prize of up to 100,000.
What Thursday's mission did to the prize
The celebrities are playing for a charity of their choosing, with a ceiling of 100,000 pounds. Thursday's task put another 5,000 pounds in the pot and took the running total to 64,500. A final mission can still move that number. It cannot change the fact that Acaster's exit has left the faithfuls with a shorter list and a clearer theory.
The theory is simple and may be wrong, which is how the format works. If Jama and King Kenny are the remaining traitors, the faithfuls need two correct banishments, and they need to survive whatever murder the night produced. If one of those two is already innocent in the room's mind, the traitors only need the faithfuls to turn on Blunt, Pinnock, Sheen, Ranganathan or Croft. Sheen and Ranganathan have spent the series being listened to. That is an advantage until the moment the room decides the persuasive person is the dangerous one.
Why this final is the one the series was built for
Studio Lambert Scotland has had a hit on its hands since the first Thursday. The BBC scheduled the run on Thursday and Friday nights at 8pm, a slot that assumes families and group chats will still be awake for a banishment. Tonight is the last time that bet has to pay. The prize is real money for a charity. The sport, for everyone else, is whether a faithful table can see Jama's toast for what it was.
Set a reminder for 8pm if you have followed the castle this far. If you missed Thursday, start with the penultimate episode and then come back for the final. The winner's name will be the only spoiler that matters, and it is not in this piece, because the programme has not aired.