The third series of The Traitors is coming to an end, with Claudia Winkleman revealing on Friday last week that there were just two more roundtables until the final, which features a surprise twist.
When the current series launched, Claudia announced that there would be one final twist to the show, with a new banishment rule put in place that will change the grand finale on Friday 24 January. In previous years, those who were banished at the final hurdle immediately stated whether they were a Traitor or a Faithful, giving the remaining group a clue as to how many of each could be left in the game. This year, that won’t be the case.
Instead, as Claudia revealed in the first episode to the shock of the assembled players, there is a new rule. She said: "Those who make it to the final will no longer reveal their true identities as they leave, instead you will need to rely solely on your instinct as to whether any Traitors are left in the game. I’ll let that sink in.”
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BBC)Fans can expect the new rule to come into play after two more roundtables after Friday night's show, with Claudia telling the contestants ahead of the last banishment: "After tonight, you will only have two roundtables where those banished will reveal their identities when they leave. We are down to the wire."
Ahead of Wednesday's episode, there are still two Traitors in play, original Traitor Minah and her recruit, Charlotte, who isn’t quite as trustworthy as Minah thinks she is. While Minah believes Charlotte is a girl she can trust to see them both to the final where they could potentially split the prize money, Charlotte has already revealed to camera that she is fully prepared to throw her fellow Traitor under the bus to grab the prize pot for herself.
One previous player who doesn’t think fan favourite Minah will make it all the way to the end is Wilf from series one, who chatted to Mecca Bingo about what he thought may happen in the final three episodes.
"Between episodes 1 and 6, what you do as a Traitor is you don't plant any seeds, you're the ones that water the seeds, but she's done it for a bit too long, so people have realised that she's not actually throwing names in it," he said.
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BBC / Studio Lambert)"She's just watering the seeds that they've planted, so I think they’ve sussed her in terms of knowing that she’s playing it too easy." He thinks that players who don’t raise names at the round table often end up getting banished for not contributing enough, and that could be Minah’s undoing.
"I think they'll use that strategy and just get rid of her because she's not saying too much anyway, she’s not really coming with her own opinions so I think her days are numbered."
He also doesn’t think she is currently aware that Charlotte can’t be trusted. "If I were Minah, I'd be going around and speaking to more people, as she's clearly not because Charlotte’s been planting her name everywhere. If Minah was going around asking, people would say, 'Oh, Charlotte said your name,' and then she’d be able to come up with a plan to get rid of Charlotte, but it shows that Minah’s not doing enough walking around, talking and finding out.”
The final episode on Friday is sure to be full of twists and turns, and is 10 minutes longer than the usual one hour episode so that all the drama can be squeezed in. Fans should note that the episodes on Wednesday and Thursday this week are at the usual time of 9pm, but the final on Friday will kick off at 8.30pm and finish at 9.40pm, and will be followed by The Traitors: Uncloaked straight afterwards.
The Uncloaked spin-off, which is usually shown on BBC Two, is moving to BBC One for the night and will feature Ed Gamble chatting to all the finalists, and the ultimate winner or winners.
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