Veteran presenter Jonathan Ross (alongside Alan Carr, Cat Burns) is one of the Celebrity Traitors. They are great strategists leveraging their unique resources in an unpredictable environment.
Getty Images for the NTA’s
More than 11 million people tuned into the latest episode of Celebrity Traitors UK 2025, making it the most watched unscripted hit since 2022. The strength of the cast and the atmospheric setting of Ardross Castle in the Scottish Highlands have both contributed to its appeal.
But the real draw is the remarkable start made by the three traitors, Alan Carr, Cat Burns, and Jonathan Ross. Never before—in the UK, nor any other country where the reality show has run—have the Traitors managed to eliminate six Faithfuls in the first four episodes without one of them being detected.
What should they do next?
Strategy professors typically consider environmental factors and an organization’s resources (in this case the Traitor’s skills and resources) prior to deciding on the next steps.
The Environment: Isolation, Paranoia, and Performance Pressure
As the name suggests, Celebrity Traitor is played by celebrities. And in contrast to many other reality shows, most of them are real A-listers. The implication is that the contestants will have their public image in mind and will try to align their behavior with their brand.
In addition to this, many of the stars know each other. For example, Alan Carr and Paloma Faith are good friends. The Traitors are able to exploit the friendly atmosphere, where social bonds and pre-existing relationships cloud their fellow contestants’ judgement. On the other hand, they need to be aware that acting out of character will make them suspicious, limiting their deception repertoire.
A second environmental aspects that is relevant—and less obvious for viewers—is the effect of the production process. An episode takes roughly two days to shoot. The final round table discussion which appears to be 10 to 15 minutes on TV can take up to 3 hours. Before the filming starts, contestants are not allowed to talk. The room temperature is lowered to increase discomfort and the contestants have no outside contact, taking away their usual support system. The intention is to amplify paranoia. It certainly increases the chances for a slip-up. Tameka Empson, for example, attributed her banishment to mistakenly saying that she was a Traitor.
Overall, the environmental factors work in favor of the Traitors, with many opportunities to misdirect and nudge suspicion towards the other players. This is crucial, considering a central concept in strategy: information asymmetry. If one party has better information than the other, this is a substantial advantage. And in this case, a large structural advantage lies with the Traitors.
Resources and Skills: The Traitors’ Arsenal
In order to exploit environmental characteristics, organizations and individuals need the capacity to do so. This begs the question, do they have any distinct resources or skills at their disposal?
For example, Jonathan Ross is a veteran broadcaster. In episode four it seemed inevitable that he would be banished, but during the round-table he took on the role of a host. Having already orchestrated a smart whispering campaign throughout the episode, this helped him to direct suspicion away from himself and towards Clare Balding—who clearly had him in her crosshairs.
Cat Burns keeps a low-profile, carefully playing to the stereotype of the friendly young and innocent woman. Who thinks she could even hurt a fly? She might also have a cognitive advantage linked to her ADHD diagnosis, which could help with pattern recognition, divergent thinking, and fearlessness. This is on display during the planning session of the Traitors, where she often has smart unusual ideas of how to proceed.
Alan Carr’s main weapon is his charm. With a background in entertainment and hosting, he is able to read social dynamics and then use his humor to shape the direction of the conversation. “Murdering” his friend Paloma Faith also helped to put him above suspicion.
Strategic implications
Despite this, the odds are not weighted in favor of the Traitors for episode five. Joe Marler and Joe Wilkinson’s “Big Dog” theory poses a particular problem for Jonathan Ross. They have argued that the producers are likely to have cast one high profile celebrity as Faithful and another as Traitor.
The most obvious candidates in this regard are Stephen Fry and Jonathan Ross. If they act upon those suspicions, Ross has at least a 50/50 chance of being banished. However, given his prominent role so far and the prior suspicions that have circulated about him, the odds of him being evicted are probably as high as 80 per cent.
The Traitors could counter this by following their playbook from episode four and trying to change the narrative. For example, they could suggest that David Olusoga has been suspiciously quiet so far, especially given he previously mastered a high-stakes UK exclusive: a 2020 BBC interview with Barak Obama.
However, if they are thinking further ahead, a better tactic might be to sacrifice one of their own. Carr and Burns could position themselves against Ross. If Ross gets voted out (which seems likely), then speaking out against him reinforces the impression that they are faithful. Alternatively, if Ross manages to survive and Carr or Burns are voted out in a future round, Ross appears vindicated.
Strategy is about doing something unique to shift the odds in your favor. Accusing each other is exactly the kind of move that could do just that for the Traitors.
