‘The Celebrity Traitors’ is here and there’s someone I’m already backing to win

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Hello, Rolling Stone UK readers and, more importantly, Traitors fans! 

You’ll remember me as the fiendish king of Traitors Season Two when I went largely under the radar on my way to scooping the prize and famously declared “I’M THE BEST TRAITOR IN THE WORLD!”

It’s for this exact reason that I’ll be your new Celebrity Traitors correspondent, giving my expert opinions on the famous faces that I think could be in with a chance of following in my footsteps.

It changed my life; it gave me a new best mate in the king of bows Paul Gorton (your Traitors correspondent for series 3) and I’m buzzing to see who does well.

Firstly though, I *do* think they’re going in there with a disadvantage when it comes to perception. The normal version of Traitors is an interesting beast because we’re able to go in there as unknowns and no one has a perception of what we’re like. That’s not clearly the case when you’re famous, so I want to see if the more well-known faces will go in there and show the personality they’re known for.

Take the brilliant YouTuber Niko Omilana, who’s known for being a prankster. Could that go against him if they know that? He’s very smart, but his pranks involve leading people down the garden path and that’s *exactly* what a Traitor sometimes has to do.

It’s a brilliant line up at large, but the one person I’m really backing to do well early doors is Alan Carr. Yep, I’m putting my cards on the table there. I want him to be a Traitor and I want him to go the whole way.

It all stems from the fact that I went to a summer party at Amanda Holden’s house after I’d won the Traitors and he was there! He was telling me over a few Aperol Spritzes how much he loved the show and whether I thought there would ever be a celeb version. Talk about a full circle moment, eh?

He went on to ask me a fair few questions about the show, so there’s every chance I may have imparted some wisdom to him that might help. There’s also every chance that, after that night, he wouldn’t have remembered it. But the reason I think he’s a dark horse is that he can get away with things that other people wouldn’t be able to. He’s the sort of character where they could underestimate him because they’ll just think everything he says is a joke. I think the best way to describe it is that I think he’ll be *so bad* at being a Traitor that he could actually be good.

You can imagine him being asked if he’s a Traitor and just laughing, saying no straight away, and that being accepted as the norm. It almost reminds me of the game I played when I used my age to my advantage, and I acted gullible. I acted like I didn’t know what was going on.

I’ve also met Tom Daley before and he’s a lovely guy, but sports stars all have that competitive edge, don’t they? He could show off a dark side and become a *great* Traitor.

Ultimately though, I really hope they just get to have the same experience that I did. There’s no way to describe the feeling of being in that bubble the minute you arrive at the castle and Queen Claudia comes out. I know that she won’t let them off on the challenges either. I still remember having to drag a catapult up the mountains of Inverness and it was the heaviest thing in the world. I want to see the celebrities do that and I want to see them get dirty, wet, and freezing cold. That’s what we deserve as viewers.

It’s a brilliant cast and now I just can’t wait to see them all get off that train and make their way to the castle. Let the games begin!

As told to Nick Reilly