King Kenny has suggested he would have won The Celebrity Traitors had James Acaster not confessed to being a Traitor, a moment he said left him shocked. The BBC One celebrity spin-off's finale drew its highest overnight audience yet, with 11.2 million viewers tuning in.
Acaster's confession stuns the roundtable
Kenny, whose full name is Kenny Ojuederie, was recruited as a Traitor by Love Island host Maya Jama and comedian James Acaster, following the banishment of Hannah Fry. During last Thursday's semi-final, James stunned his fellow players by coming clean and admitting he was a Traitor, leading to his banishment from the roundtable.
James began the game as a Faithful but was recruited by original Traitors, Maya Jama and Richard E Grant. The 41-year-old had made it clear he wanted to play for the Faithful, and his struggles with the role became apparent as the game reached its latter stages. He fell under suspicion at the penultimate roundtable after a discussion about former EastEnders star Ross Kemp's murder in plain sight, in which he struggled to defend himself.
Kenny's reaction to the confession
Speaking on The Fellas podcast, Kenny said: "I was shocked." He added: "Ultimately, in that moment when he spoke about him not spraying the perfume and bringing up that the murder happened in plain sight in that room, I said to Maya, 'Time's coming but we're going to have to fight for our life and try and win this!'"
With the heat falling on Maya, Kenny explained: "I kind of had an argument to try and stay as long as I can because I was out of that room when the murder happened. So that was the only hope I had to try and win this." He added: "I think if James Acaster didn't say that I would have won."
Finale ratings and outcome
James' exit did not bode well for Maya and Kenny. In Friday's last episode of the Claudia Winkleman-hosted show, Maya was ousted when Kenny voted for her to be banished to avoid suspicion landing on him. He made it to the final four before being voted out at the fire pit, and comedian and BBC Radio 2 host Romesh Ranganathan and actor Sebastian 'Bash' Croft went on to win the show, splitting the £83,000 prize pot between their chosen charities.
The finale attracted its highest average overnight audience yet, with 11.2 million viewers tuning in. The episode also recorded a peak audience of 11.6 million on BBC One, alongside a 62.9% audience share, according to the BBC. It became the most-watched episode of the celebrity spin-off to date, drawing a higher average audience than last year's finale, which attracted 11.1 million viewers overnight.
