Celebrity Traitors fans convinced the Faithful made a mistake banishing Richard E Grant

| Senior TV Reporter Published October 9, 2026 8:45am Updated October 9, 2026 8:45am Richard E Grant made Traitors history last night (Picture: BBC/Studio Lambert/Euan Cherry) It was last night’s inevitability: Richard E Grant was the first ever Traitor to be banished at the first roundtable. It turns out, telling everyone in the Celebrity Traitors castle that you’re a Traitor is not the hide-in-plain-sight tactic of dreams. Even if Alan Carr did last year get away with laughing his way through a declaration that he was a Faithful. So Grant was nearly unanimously voted out, followed by plenty of crowing from his fellow contestants at nabbing a turncoat on their first try. Except, a certain section of the BBC fandom thinks the decision to vote Grant out, knowing full well he was a Traitor, was a misstep. Some argue that, when you know a Traitor’s identity early doors, the move is to let them hang around and observe their behaviour. The theory was shared on the Reddit megathread dissecting the third episode, underneath which @the0rthopaedicsurgeo commented: ‘The best tactic for Faithfuls is to keep Traitors in the game, otherwise they just recruit. A certain section of the BBC fandom thinks the decision to vote Grant out was a misstep (Picture: BBC/Platform Media/James Green) To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video ‘It would’ve been absolutely hilarious if everyone at the roundtable agreed “So obviously Richard is a Traitor”, and then just kept him in the game anyway. They just drag him along all the way to the final, like a despondent dead man walking, blocking at least one recruitment, and then vote him off.’ It would certainly be a novel tactic in the game. In the replies to this comment, @Username_version2000 said: ‘Yeah it’s been discussed that it’s better the enemy you know kinda thing.’ They then referenced a tweak to the game in the US version of The Traitors, which would fend off this gameplay, in which banishing a Traitor from the game earns $15,000 (£11,326) for the prize pot. Should the Faithful really have kept Richard E Grant around? It’s a compelling, big-brained theory: getting to see a known Traitor in the castle, watching how they vote, who they are talking to and what theories they’re giving oxygen to, all in the hopes of identifying the other members of their coven. But there are glaring issues with this theory, as convincing as it sounds in the confined space of message boards. In practice, Hannah Fry has demonstrated why recruitment can be so beneficial to the Faithful. Just observing her behaviour at that first breakfast, several of her fellow players clearly saw she had been recruited. Recruited Traitors are, quite often, shambolic. Other examples from the normie game include Freddie Fraser, Charlotte Berman and the biggest grenade of them all, Kieran Tompsett, who took Wilf Webster down with him. Beyond the unpredictability of recruitment, there are the practicalities of getting the Faithful to go along with this plan. If you’re keeping a Traitor around for kicks, that involves banishing several Faithful along the way, who are unlikely to be happy sacrifices. Who would go along with it? Particularly in the civilian version of the game, where a mammoth cash prize and the promise of post-match fame are on the line, it would never fly. But if you’re playing your own version of the parlour game at home, then sure, why not give it a whirl? That is, if you are sure they are a Traitor. Even the celebs had their doubts about Grant. Richard Osman has pointed out how meaningless the early weeks in the show (Picture: Ken McKay/ITV/Shutterstock) The idea of keeping known Traitors around is one that has been championed by show megafan Richard Osman, who has pointed out how meaningless the early weeks are to the gameplay. Speaking on The Rest is Entertainment in 2024, he said: ‘A big flaw is this: three Traitors, then what if they get voted out immediately? Well if they get voted out, you just put new Traitors in. ‘So actually the early weeks of it are meaningless. Because they’re just going to get replaced. ‘If you get a Traitor out on week one, you might as well not. Because they’re immediately going to get replaced. You might as well for the first few weeks, just get rid of people who annoy you.’ Deals of the Day My honest review of the new UKLash Lash Lift Gel Kurt Geiger's new Notting Hill collection is a love letter to London's chaotic weather Dyson fans are swapping to this Hoover vacuum-mop that washes floors as it cleans I tried L'Oréal Paris's new PDRN serum and my skin looked glossier after one use This new Cricut gadget turns your favourite photos into stickers in minutes Celebrity Traitors continues tonight at 8pm on BBC One and iPlayer. Arrow MORE: Dragons’ Den star entrepreneur who was a plasterer ‘now turning over £1,000,000 a year’ Arrow MORE: Celebrity Traitors bosses forced to scrap huge cliffhanger plans after ‘unthinkable’ incident Arrow MORE: Complaining Doctor Who fans need to grow up TV Newsletter Sign up and tell us which TV shows you love to watch to get personalised updates every morning.