Richard Osman 'WRONG' about The Celebrity Traitors' launch date
Richard Osman "wrongly" announced that the second series of The Celebrity Traitors will start on September 23.
The Celebrity Traitors bosses have insisted Richard Osman got the upcoming second series' launch date "wrong".
During a live recording of the TV presenter, 55, and 52-year-old journalist Marina Hyde's The Rest Is Entertainment podcast at London's Southbank Centre on September 5, their guest and The Celebrity Traitors series one finalist Joe Marler discussed the advice he would give series two stars.
The 36-year-old former rugby union player asked: "What is it, September 23, the next series?”
And Richard then claimed: "By the way, to point out, it’s absolutely embargoed that it starts on September 23 ... let’s talk about what we call the events of September 23 this year … the cat’s out of the bag, isn’t it? Not to repeat it."
The Celebrity Traitors team are said to have been left "blindsided and confused" over where Richard got the claimed September 23 start date for the BBC's star-studded version of its game of backstabbing, deceit and betrayal.
An insider told The Sun newspaper's TVBiz column: "There was huge frustration when Richard wrongly announced the date, and everyone involved were blindsided and confused as to where he got that from.
"He even sent a text to the BBC’s Head of Content Kate Philips to apologise for the cock-up, which is not a scenario which happens very often.
"Making it worse is the fact that so many people assumed that if Richard said it, then it was probably correct. After all, he’s a BBC star, and former telly executive who’s well placed to uncover these bits of information.
"Except he got it wrong."
The publication reports that the show will return "later than September 23, possibly at the end of this month, or into October".
During the live edition of The Rest Is Entertainment podcast, Richard explained he had spoken to some of the stars involved in this year's Celebrity Traitors, and it "sounds like it was quite intense", which Joe noted was very different to his series, won by comedian Alan Carr, 50, who played as a Traitor.
Joe said: “I believe it was a slightly different emotion than our experience. Ours was very laugh-led, and everyone was sort of enjoying catching up, you know, pratting about to the point where they went, ‘Guys, we’re trying to play a game.’
“It’s not just for the laughs – ‘Oh, do you remember going to that party, darling?…’
“Whereas this lot really want it from the start, and then I guess they see how well the first series has gone and there’s a little bit of pressure on them to be like: ‘Oh, I’d quite like a bit of that.’”
This year, 21 famous faces are taking part in The Celebrity Traitors, which sees some stars secretly 'murder' other contestants, while the other players, known as the Faithfuls, try to identify and banish them from Ardross Castle, Scottish Highlands.
They are comedian Joe Lycett, 38, singer Leigh-Anne Pinnock, 34; comedian Rob Beckett, 40; Love Island host Maya Jama, 32; comic Romesh Ranganathan, 48; The Last of Us' Bella Ramsey, 22; EastEnders alum Ross Kemp, 62; mathematician Hannah Fry, 42; funnyman James Acaster, 41; singer James Blunt, 52; model Jerry Hall, 70; and 56-year-old Coronation Street icon Julie Hesmondhalgh.
The line-up is rounded out by Good Omens actor Michael Sheen, 57; social media personality King Kenny, 29; comedienne Miranda Hart, 53; Heartstopper's Sebastian Croft, 24; Barbie actress Sharon Rooney, 37; Industry's Myha'la, 30; Saltburn cast member Richard E. Grant, 69; broadcaster Amol Rajan and comic Joanne McNally, both 43.
Claudia Winkleman, 54, returns as the host of The Celebrity Traitors.
