BBC The Traitors Embroiled In Racism Row After Two Black Women Were The First To Be Eliminated

BBC reality show ‘The Traitors’ is caught up in an unconscious bias row after two black women were the first to be eliminated.

I can’t pretend that I’ve been watching the new season, but according to a viewer writing for The Canary; both contestants sent home early have been women of colour – Judy at the first roundtable, and Netty as the first “murder” victim of the Traitors – and this can only be due to racist bias.

They wrote: “The (mostly white) contestants piled on Judy for being, on the whole, too brash and changing her personality too much. When white contestants were accused, they picked out physical things they’d done, such as seeming more anxious after taking the blindfold off.

“To add insult to injury, the contestants inherently trusted the white man, Sam, who was leading the charge against Judy. With one even saying it was because he was “very articulate”, when in reality he wasn’t any more articulate than her.“

And the general reaction on X:

Good Morning Britain covered the controversy earlier today, and fans of reality TV are also jumping on Reddit and insisting the pattern is indicative of racism.

One viewer wrote: “The unconscious bias is always SO loud and I’m surprised they don’t coach the group on that ahead of filming.

“It’s always ‘I just don’t trust him/her’ or ‘I just have a gut feeling’ yes hmmmm I wonder what you mean by that! So freaking disappointing, year after year.”

A second added: “I will say that, in fairness, Ross has just been stitched up by the circumstance of knowing someone else in the game and this would probably always get heat. But they’re always on black women’s necks in this game.”

A third suggested the issue ran deeper than the BBC show: “This is not just a traitors thing, any and all British reality shows go this way, especially in the early stages before contestants get to know each other (or public gets to know them). It’s depressing.”

Another claimed: “It’s ALL British reality shows. The minority’s get voted off or removed so quickly. Doesn’t matter what channel, it ALWAYS happens.”

I suppose there might be something to it if it keeps happening. Then again, I asked ChatGPT whether any people of colour have won British reality TV shows in the last 20 years and it turns out a few have.

Nadiya Hussain won the Great British Bakeoff in 2015, and the Apprentice has seen both Harpreet Kaur and Marnie Swindells as winners (2022 and 2023 respectively).

As for shows where the actual audience votes for the winner: Sydney Christmas, a biracial woman, won Britain’s Got Talent in 2024, Michelle Ngulube and Josh Oyinsan became the first black couple to win Love Island in 2024, Shilpa Shetty won Big Brother in 2017, and Alesha Dixon won Strictly also in 2007.

Maybe it’s just a Traitors thing?

For the Watford DC diversity officer who screamed ‘go back to your own country’ at railway staff, click HERE. Wait, what?