Alan Carr has been crowned the winner of the first celebrity edition of The BBC's The Traitors, taking home £87,500 for a children's cancer charity. The comedian revealed himself as a traitor in the dramatic finale, which saw him outwit fellow contestants including Cat Burns, Joe Marler, Nick Mohammed and David Olusoga.
The episode, which had an average of 12.6 million viewers across the first four episodes, was accidentally released more than 24 hours early in Canada on streaming service Crave before being pulled. In the final challenge, the contestants retrieved five gold bars from a steam train before it exploded, adding £20,000 to the prize fund.
Carr, overcome with emotion, declared: “I am and have always been a traitor. It’s been tearing me apart.” After his admission, he was comforted by Olusoga and Mohammed, with the latter saying: “You did brilliantly.” Carr’s victory marks the first time in the celebrity series that a traitor has won, following only one traitor victory in three non-celebrity UK series.
The series was notable for the faithfuls’ ineptitude, with only two traitors banished compared to five in each civilian series. Earlier, Jonathan Ross was banished at a roundtable, while Burns was caught and banished before Marler was wrongly identified as a traitor and eliminated.
Other highlights included a viral moment involving actress Celia Imrie, whose flatulence during a challenge was described by show host Ed Gamble as “the highlight of the series”. Gamble joked that Imrie had “altered the dynamics of guffs” in the game.
