The Celebrity Traitors returns on Thursday, 29 October with a decision still hanging over the castle: will Sharon Rooney or Joanne McNally be banished? Ahead of Friday’s final, the unresolved vote captures the central problem facing the Faithful. They are running out of time while the people directing the deception remain remarkably well protected.
This preview reflects events shown before Thursday’s episode and contains spoilers for the series so far. No winner has been confirmed.
Kenny holds the immediate advantage
According to ITV News, Sharon and Joanne received equal support for banishment at the previous roundtable. A second vote placed the deciding choice with King Kenny, but the episode ended before viewers heard his answer. Both women are Faithful, meaning the immediate decision threatens to remove another innocent player regardless of which name he chooses.
That makes the cliffhanger more uncomfortable than a straightforward contest between competing suspects. Viewers know the person holding the decisive influence is himself a Traitor. For the remaining Faithful, the next challenge is therefore bigger than recovering from one mistaken accusation: they need to reconsider how they arrived at it.
A reward that exposed the trust problem
Kenny’s influence grew after the mission that identified him, Maya Jama and James Acaster as especially trusted contestants. The advantage ultimately became a dagger granting Kenny a double vote. As LADbible’s episode recap explains, the Faithful had effectively helped place additional voting power with their opponents.
Our reading is that this sequence matters beyond the mechanics of the dagger. The group’s confidence and the audience’s knowledge are moving in opposite directions. A player can appear reassuring, contribute to discussions and remain popular without those qualities proving anything about their assigned role.
For the Faithful, a useful response would be to revisit voting patterns and arguments rather than simply reverse every friendship. General suspicion is easy to spread; building a convincing case that persuades other players is much harder.
Why a clean voting record proves little
The Tab reported on 28 October that Maya, James and Kenny had not received a banishment vote. Its tally also included Romesh Ranganathan and the already eliminated Miranda Hart among players who had avoided votes.
That comparison is revealing. Avoiding suspicion can describe a successful Traitor, but it can also describe an innocent contestant whom the group likes. A spotless record is evidence of social protection, not a reliable answer to the question everyone is trying to solve.
Miranda’s murder also illustrates the limits of being trusted. Staying clear of roundtable accusations does not protect a Faithful from the Traitors’ separate decisions. The two routes out of the castle reward different kinds of survival, which complicates any attempt to identify the strongest position.
The final is scheduled for Friday
Radio Times reports that the series concludes on Friday, 30 October at 8pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer. The final is scheduled to run for 80 minutes, finishing at 9.20pm, with The Celebrity Traitors: Uncloaked following afterwards. These are UK broadcast times.
The publication also notes that Richard E Grant and Hannah Fry have already been caught as Traitors. Those successes show the Faithful have identified deception before, even though Maya, James and Kenny remain in the game ahead of Thursday’s episode.
The crucial uncertainty is who will actually reach the end. A preview can describe the current balance, but it cannot turn that position into a confirmed finalist list or predict how the remaining votes will unfold.
What to watch in the penultimate episode
Beyond Kenny’s announcement, the most useful question is whether the surviving players change their method. Do they challenge familiar explanations, ask who benefits from each accusation and distinguish personal warmth from evidence? Those details will tell viewers more than another confident declaration of loyalty.
For now, the final week begins with the Traitors enjoying trust and the Faithful facing another painful result. That creates a compelling setup, but the outcome remains open. Thursday’s episode must resolve the cliffhanger before Friday can decide whose judgement, alliances and deception have survived the castle.
The appeal lies in that gap between what viewers can see and what contestants believe, with every conversation potentially reinforcing a mistake or finally exposing one.