Why Peter Capaldi Turned Down The Celebrity Traitors Season 2

As rumours continue to swirl about which stars will be on the line-up for this year’s season of The Celebrity Traitors, there’s one name that we can now confidently rule out.

Over the weekend, former Doctor Who star Peter Capaldi made an appearance on Laura Kuenssberg’s flagship BBC politics show, during which the subject of Celebrity Traitors came up in the conversation.

The Oscar winner then shared that he’d been approached about putting in a stint in the iconic castle, but turned it down.

Explaining his reasons for not wanting to compete on Celebrity Traitors, Peter said the show “propels” its contestants “into the public eye” and to a “level of fame” and “exposure” that he’s personally not comfortable with.

“It’s like doing my music things,” Peter noted, referring to his recent pivot from acting to music. “It’s very difficult for people in that business to understand that you want to keep it small.

“People keep saying to me, ‘why don’t you do a bigger tour?’, or ‘why don’t you do a bigger release?’, or ‘why don’t you promote this more?’. I’m not doing it to be famous.”

Filming on the second season of Celebrity Traitors is due to get underway imminently, before the star-studded reality show returns to our screens in the autumn.

A number of names reported to be in the running for the show’s first iteration, including Bob Mortimer, Daisy May Cooper and Danny Dyer, are now heavily rumoured to be following in Alan Carr’s footsteps, with the likes of Ruth Jones, Cheryl Tweedy, Michael Sheen and Amol Rajan also tipped to be on the follow-up season’s line-up.

Meanwhile, Alison Hammond recently claimed that she was too booked and busy to do the show after rumours about her involvement.

The Traitors will also return for its fifth season in early 2026, with the BBC recently renewing both the main show and its celebrity counterpart until at least 2030.