The first UK celebrity series of The Traitors reached its dramatic conclusion on Thursday night, with comedian Alan Carr being crowned the winning traitor after a tense final that left the faithful players utterly fooled.
The Fatal Flaw in the Faithful's Game
Speaking to Sky News following the finale, historian and contestant David Olusoga pinpointed the major weakness in the faithful's strategy. The 55-year-old revealed that the celebrities became "too good at having fun" during their time at the Scottish castle.
"We were brilliant at the tasks and every day we went out and did what were basically bonding exercises," Olusoga explained. "We all really got to know each other, and then we were terrible at the round table because we just liked each other too much."
This emotional connection proved disastrous for their gameplay, making this celebrity cohort the worst in the show's UK history at identifying the traitors in their midst.
Alan Carr's Masterful Double-Bluff
Despite many viewers spotting what seemed like obvious clues that Carr was a traitor, Olusoga confessed he never suspected the beloved comedian. The historian described Carr's strategy as a brilliant psychological play.
"It was like a double bluff," Olusoga analysed. "It was somebody who wasn't trying to disguise that they were a traitor, therefore, it seemed logical that they weren't a traitor."
Carr's inherent likeability worked powerfully in his favour. "Alan is a national treasure. He's innately likeable," Olusoga noted. "I think none of us really wanted to believe Alan was a traitor because he had us laughing, we were in stitches the whole time."
The final roundtable saw fellow traitor Cat Burns banished, followed by faithful Joe Marler, leaving Carr to claim the entire prize pot.
Questioning Logic in the Game of Deception
For Olusoga, known for his intellectual rigour, the experience was particularly humbling. The historian found that his usual analytical approach failed him completely in the high-stakes environment of deception.
"I learned the limits of my kind of my approach to logic," he admitted, "which made a lot of sense to me but didn't really get me very far."
He described the game as "devilishly difficult" and confessed he would have been a "terrible" traitor, adding wryly that he "wasn't very good as a faithful" either.
Despite his lack of competitive success, Olusoga has no regrets about participating. "I've been asked to do a lot of different shows. And I've always said no to all of them," he shared. "But even before doing it, my view was, Traitors is special."
The celebrity series has proven to be a ratings triumph for the BBC since its launch a month ago, wrapping up with Thursday's nail-biting finale that kept audiences on the edge of their seats.
