Celebrity Traitors star James Acaster has claimed that the real reason James Blunt led the charge against banished Faithful Julie Hesmondhalgh was cut from the show.
The ex-Coronation Street actor was voted out of the game last week after James Blunt said he thought the first immunity badge, given to Julie after she was deemed “most faithful” at the start of the show, could have crowned her a Traitor. He was pretty persistent in his charge.
But Julie was later revealed to be innocent, much to the frustration of the show’s Faithfuls.
James Acaster said that the You’re Beautiful singer wasn’t relying on the – fairly thin – badge theory alone, though.
Speaking to The Times, he claimed: “In the edit, James Blunt’s reason was that Julie was given the first shield.
“What actually happened is that when they did the shoulder tap for the Traitors’ pick at the beginning, James told Julie who he thought was acting suspiciously around the table.”
The comedian said that he’d spoken to Julie right after the Traitors had been picked and suggested those newly recruited to the dark side wouldn’t share their theories about who might be a Traitor, because they didn’t yet know who the other Traitors were. If a Traitor put someone’s name out there and then met them later in the Turret, the contestant would regret it.
“Then Julie went into the room where James [Blunt] was, [put] this to everyone, and [said], ‘Like you, James. You’re not sharing your theories with anyone,’” James Acaster added.
“And James [Blunt] is thinking, ‘Well that’s not true, because I just shared mine with you at the table’”.
James Acaster suggested that it was this suspicious behaviour, and not the immunity shield, that James Blunt brought up when accusing Julie.
Stating that this version “isn’t in the edit,” James Acaster said he’d be “pretty gutted” if he’d suffered the fate of the other James.
Speaking to The Independent, a representative for the show responded: “Everyone experiences their own game in their individual way with many differing theories, opinions and multiple discussions throughout the day.
“Naturally, we could never include every minute of a day’s filming in any one episode where we need to focus on the key story moments.
“The Round Table offers an open forum for all of those theories to be presented and it is there that we see the most salient points come to the fore that succinctly convey how players reach the decision on who to banish in that moment”.
Both James Acaster and James Blunt have reportedly been ticked off by the show’s production crew and bosses, respectively – the Off Menu host for having given his partner a potential clue about the show’s challenges during a 10-minute call, and the musician for a commercial endorsement on his social media.
