Amol Rajan Admits Reality TV Miscalculation After Early Celebrity Traitors Exit
Having become the initial contestant to be murdered on the program, presenter Amol Rajan reflected on his brief time in the fresh run of The Celebrity Traitors, admitting that he pursued “the wrong game” afterwards.
The Bottom Line
- Amol Rajan became the first contestant eliminated from the new series of The Celebrity Traitors, getting “murdered” by secret traitors Richard E Grant and Maya Jama during Friday’s episode on BBC One and iPlayer.
- Appearing on the spin-off show The Celebrity Traitors: Uncloaked, Rajan admitted that with hindsight, he adopted the wrong strategy by trying to fly under the radar instead of pushing to be chosen as a traitor.
Reflecting on a Once-in-a-Lifetime Reality Exit
The 43-year-old broadcaster admitted that his initial approach to the high-stakes BBC reality format was fundamentally flawed. During Thursday’s broadcast, Rajan and Acaster had sat down with Grant and Jama to make their case for why they deserved recruitment rather than being sent home from the contest.
Appearing on the BBC spin-off show The Celebrity Traitors: Uncloaked on Friday, Rajan reflected on the swift end to his run. “It’s hard not to watch it and think I, obviously, with 20/20 hindsight, I played the wrong game,” he stated, adding that the opportunity was “a crazy, crazy once-in-a-lifetime” experience.
Why Rajan Believes He Would Have Succeeded as a Traitor
The former Today Show presenter explained that he felt he would have performed well if given the chance to switch sides and join the secret manipulators. “Obviously, I wish I’d been chosen, and I wish I’d been a traitor,” Rajan said.
“I can say, hand on heart, that if I’d been chosen as a traitor in the first, when Maya and Richard were, if I got the nod or the tap at the roundtable, I think it would have thrown me a bit. I’d be like, ‘what am I doing? what’s going on?’, having genuinely spent a day as a faithful, if I’d then been recruited, I think I would have been quite a good traitor because I’d actually known what it was like to be a faithful.”
Following his exit, the journalist suggested that Acaster would prove to be “brilliant” in his new role as a traitor.
| Participant / Role | Key Action / Event |
|---|---|
| Amol Rajan | First participant murdered on the show; admitted playing “the wrong game.” |
| Richard E Grant & Maya Jama | Secret traitors who targeted Rajan and recruited James Acaster. |
| James Acaster | Brought in as the third traitor for the series. |
Navigating the Roundtable and Managing Suspicion
Rajan acknowledged that entering the game as “the journalist who asks all the awkward questions” meant he had deliberately warned himself to “shut up” in an effort to avoid being murdered or banished early on. Despite this caution, his stay was cut short.
Meanwhile, Friday’s instalment ended on a suspenseful note after Grant drew significant scrutiny at the roundtable. The actor had accidentally revealed his traitor identity to several participants shortly after discovering his role in Thursday’s episode.
Discussing Grant’s slip-up, Rajan noted: “What was that about? I mean no one’s ever done that. I mean who knows? I think the one tactic that you should try to abide by is to keep a little bit, you know, fly under the radar a little bit for the first few days. Just shut up for the first few shows.”
The Celebrity Traitors returns on Thursday at 8pm on BBC One and iPlayer.
