Celebrity Traitors made its debut on Wednesday, with a host of famous faces arriving at the Scottish castle for the ultimate game of deceit and betrayal.

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

Presenter Claudia Winkleman soon determined who the Traitors would be after a conversation with each of the contestants.

Those selected were Mr Carr, Ms Burns and Mr Ross, who met in the cover of night to meet each other.

While the trio didn’t have much of a chance to discuss tactics, with nobody being murdered on the first night, the next day’s task proved useful to them.

Ms Balding ended up looking extremely suspicious by complete accident when she mistakenly sabotaged the question the group had to answer in the first challenge.

The famous faces were tasked with answering a question and told if they got it wrong, one of the celebs who had earlier received a shield, protecting them from the first murder, would need to surrender it.

Ms Balding took it upon herself to lock in the answer, but before the contestants could begin discussions, she managed to lock in a random number.

The mishap immediately raised suspicions and led to Ms Church selflessly surrendering her shield.

Taking to X, fans seemed to agree it would soon be over for the broadcaster.

One penned: “Clare has f***ed it up already and someone has lost the shield lol. #TheCelebrityTraitors #TheTraitorsUK #TheTraitors.”

“Why didn’t Clare apologise? You messed up but didn’t feel the need to take responsibility and forced Charlotte to give up her shield? Weird response #thetraitors,” another noted.

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Someone else joked: “That might be the first time the entire nation has heard Clare Balding swear #TheTraitors.”

“Sigh, Clare Balding, you had one job useless and first up to be nominated traitor #CelebrityTraitors #TheTraitors,” another predicted.

Someone else echoed: “Oh for Christ sakes Clare. Round Table will be seeing you shortly #TheTraitors.”

“As a Faithful, Clare Balding did *THE most* Traitorish thing imaginable in the first task! She could be in big trouble at the first Round Table #CelebrityTraitors,” someone else agreed

“That was such a stupid idea. Poor Claire. #TheCelebrityTraitors #TheTraitors,” another sympathised.

“Oh Clare you’re f***ed luv #TheTraitors,” a different fan wrote.

One more added: “Nah I’m still in stitches cos why would Clare do that? #CelebrityTraitors #TheTraitors.” (sic)

Fans’ theories proved to be right, with the move quickly prompting her co-stars to raise their eyebrows.

Olympian Mr Daley immediately called the sports presenter out while chatting later in the day with Mr Carr, predicting she and the Traitors must have plotted to remove as many shields as possible.

However, the episode left on a cliffhanger after Mr Carr was tasked with committing a “murder” in plain sight.