Celebrity Traitors contestants spotted wearing watches as ban on knowing time overturned

Celebrity Traitors season two has changed up a number of aspects on screen, notably allowing the first two traitors to pick the final member of the turret, but one of the changes they didn’t announce has been noticed by super-fans.

Celebrity Traitors and The Traitors is one of the many reality TV shows which previously did not allow clocks or watches inside the castle.

Bizarrely this led to Nick Mohammed stating after filming season one of the Celebrity version the crew would simply reply ‘it's Traitors time' anytime they would ask.

Mike Cotton, an executive producer, revealed in an interview with the Guardian that the production is set up in a way to make the show psychologically tense and that they minimise potential for the production to be used as part of a suspicion at a roundtable.

As if this game wasn't intense enough, the previous seasons didn't allow anyone to tell the time (BBC)

Cotton said: “The cast are looking for clues all the time … who we interview; how long we interview them for. We shouldn’t ever be a player in the game.”

In season two however they have clearly decided that, whilst ‘it’s Traitors time’ is the funniest thing ever said in the show, they should actually give the contestants watches and clocks again.

Fans started noticing this and posting it to social media, with one post on Reddit saying: “Have the rules changed around watches in Traitors?

“Contestants never used to be allowed access to the real time, as part of the disorienting immersion.

“But this time (UK Celebrity S2) at least Ross, Richard and Amol (edit: plus Sharon, Miranda and Joe) are wearing watches around the castle and nobody has batted an eyelid.

“Do we think that's a change they had to make after negotiating with celebs, or an oversight?”

The watches were also blurred to avoid continuity errors (BBC)

Others have suggested that this could be a concession after Nick Mohammed said that eventually one celeb insisted production tell him the time last season and called it a ‘human right’, suggesting that the concession is much easier to enforce in the regular seasons than the celebrity one.

Eagle eyed viewers have however pointed out that the BBC have even blurred out the watches, as a second reason that they are often banned is to prevent continuity errors becoming obvious if editing moves a sequence of events out of order.

When wondering why they prevent watches, the answer can actually be found from interviews with Love Island contestants, a show that applies the same rule.

Amy Hart, from season five, said: “You’re not allowed a watch, and none of the phones have clocks on them. Producers told us if we could see the time, we’d be clock-watching all day waiting for bed or waiting for a challenge, rather than just living in the moment.”