The Celebrities on UK’s ‘The Celebrity Traitors’ Are Better Than in America

I love how mid-level celebrity works in the UK. There are maybe 100 living actors and comedians, and they all pop up at some point in a detective series, on Doctor Who, or on a panel show. Or at least that’s how I like to think of them. I watch all three, and it’s amazing how many of them cross over into multiple categories.

To wit: Four of the 19 cast members in the forthcoming season of The Celebrity Traitors UK have appeared on Doctor Who; three have been on Taskmaster (seven if you count New Year Treat episodes). Four have appeared in detective shows. And six have hosted one of those British chat shows. I don’t watch Coronation Street, but I assume it’s like Law & Order in that every actor in the UK passes through it either on the way up or on the way down, so I’m sure they’re well-represented here, too.

The point is: If you watch enough British telly, everyone looks familiar, and that’s definitely the case with the UK’s The Celebrity Traitors. Watching the trailer is basically 60 seconds of, “I know that person! Oh, I know that person too! And that person!” And they’re familiar from actual television shows and movies, not just from a season of Real Housewives or Survivor. They’re not professional reality stars, which should make this season all the more fun.

Here’s the trailer:

Here’s the cast:

Alan Carr, Cat Burns, Celia Imrie, Charlotte Church, Clare Balding, David Olusoga, Joe Marler, Joe Wilkinson, Jonathan Ross, Kate Garraway, Lucy Beaumont, Mark Bonnar, Nick Mohammed, Niko Omilana, Paloma Faith, Ruth Codd, Stephen Fry, Tameka Empson, and Tom Daley.

My Taskmaster-loving heart is especially excited for Nick Mohammed (also of Ted Lasso fame), Lucy Beaumont, and—most of all—Joe Wilkinson, who was in my all-time favorite Taskmaster task. I have to embed it anytime Wilkinson or Taskmaster comes up. It’s Pajiba Law.

The Celebrity Traitors premieres on October 8th on the BBC in the UK. Americans are SOL.