A segment of the Celebrity Traitors fandom fears that social media ‘toxicity’ towards contestants this year could put off future famous names from signing up.
The second season of the smash hit BBC show is ramping up to its finale this week, with the Traitorous trio of Maya Jama, King Kenny and James Acaster currently on top of the gameplay.
But one BBC viewer has taken to Reddit to complain about ‘toxicity’ around this season of the game of wink murder.
In a thread dedicated to the subject, they pointed to Joanne McNally’s recent Instagram video, in which she alludes to comments she has received online from Leigh-Anne Pinnock’s fans, after accusing her of being a Traitor at the roundtable.
McNally posted a video dancing to the Little Mix track Sweet Melody and wrote: ‘When you keep falsely accusing Leigh-Anne from Little Mix and throwing her under the bus on The Traitors, so now you’re desperate to appease her army of fans.’
Although the post appeared to be a light-hearted take on the matter, @Historical_Owl_1635 used that example as well as the backlash to Acaster’s decision not to get involved in the shield-building mission for Team Traitor.
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Acaster was positioned between Faithful supremos Michael Sheen and Sebastian Croft, so from under his blindfold he gestured to his fellow turret-dwellers that he would not be moving on the creaky floorboards.
The Reddit user wrote: ‘James Acaster is being called a coward and accused of ruining the game because of the blindfold thing.
‘Today’s trend seems to be that Sheen and [James] Blunt are sexist and targeting all of the women out of the show.
‘It’s a game. People are being way too parasocial with the contestants. I can definitely see future celebrities being advised by their teams not to participate because of the potential image damage.’
They finished the post by noting that the first iteration of Celebrity Traitors had elements of the same social media commentary from viewers, but that Alan Carr often ‘managed to defuse’ the tension.
While other fans agreed that there has been much social media commentary on the show, no doubt as a result of the many millions tuning in, they said celebrities will be used to that level of scrutiny.
Also, since when are people on the internet all sunshine and roses? That was @Quiet-Excitement-310’s point, writing: ‘Most sane people are not doing any of this, it’s just oddballs lurking around trying to make something of it. There is no image damage from a group of kids getting their knickers in a twist.’
@Temporary-Daikon2411 also threw cold water on the idea, writing: ‘It is the most viewed TV show in Britain. Future celebrities will hardly be deterred, I suspect.
‘You have a point about the toxicity – I just disagree with your assumption about its effects.’
Others pointed out that the comments were confined to the internet, with @Weird_Georgiana writing: ‘Celebs are forever telling each other how much they love each other and they are thick-skinned. I don’t think it will put people off.’
Metro contacted the BBC for comment on this story.
Celebrity Traitors returns on Thursday at 8pm on BBC One iPlayer.