Romesh Ranganathan and Sebastian 'Bash' Croft were crowned winners of the second series of Celebrity Traitors, but the comedian has admitted to a major error shortly before the victory. He mistakenly banished singer James Blunt, believing he was a traitor, after latching onto a comment from Maya Jama following her own elimination.
Dramatic Finale and Mistaken Banishment
The second series of Celebrity Traitors concluded on Friday, October 30, with a dramatic finale to the popular BBC programme. Faithfuls Romesh and actor Sebastian scooped a combined £83,000 for charity during the action-packed ending.
The show, fronted by Claudia Winkleman, has drawn an average audience of over 11 million viewers. Alongside Romesh, James, Sebastian and Maya, YouTuber King Kenny and former Little Mix vocalist Leigh-Anne Pinnock also made it through to the final.
Maya Jama's Parting Comment
Romesh became convinced James was a traitor after latching onto a misleading parting comment from Maya Jama when she was banished. The Love Island host remarked: "Good luck, you're going to need it."
The stand-up comic mistakenly interpreted this as a clue to the You're Beautiful singer's gameplay and chose to eliminate him mere seconds before the curtain came down.
On-Air Apology
Appearing on his BBC Radio 2 programme on Saturday, October 31, Romesh decided to spin James' brand new single Circles from his album Airplane Mode. Before airing the track, Romesh sought to bury the hatchet with his fellow contestant as he declared "I love you mate".
He said: "Last night, was the finale of Celebrity Traitors. And I won, me and Bash (Sebastian Croft). Thank you very much guys.
"Up next we've got something new from James Blunt. Look, I want to take this opportunity to say: 'James, I'm sorry. I latched onto something I shouldn't have.
"I got scared and I feel like I let you down a bit. But James, I love you, I would have played this song anyway because I think you're great. But this is my way of saying 'James, I love you mate.'"
Romesh's Regret
Speaking following the finale, Romesh confessed he felt awful for James while worrying about backlash from the singer's supporters.
He explained: "I genuinely, genuinely felt terrible about that. I had two emotions - one was that I felt so bad for James that I'd done that, and secondly, I just thought, 'All the James Blunt fans are going to hate me'.
"In my defence, after that last roundtable, you're wearing all of your nerves on the outside of your body and you're just trying to accumulate whatever data you possibly can ... your antenna are up and you're just like, 'Can I find anything that might give me a clue before I go to that fire pit?' That was a thing that I latched on to and I'm sorry about that. It was a wafer-thin thing.
"His reaction terrified me. I almost said I'm just going to leave now and I'll make a separate donation to charity. I can't even speak now, I'm so terrified about it.
"I felt so bad and my heart broke for James. I was clutching at straws in a way."
