Spoiler warning: This article reveals details from The Celebrity Traitors finale
The England team gathered to watch former prop Joe Marler compete in the final of Celebrity Traitors with Marler saying it was “way more stressful” than playing for his country.
An average of 11.1 million people tuned in to watch the episode – the biggest live audience of the year for a single TV show.
It was the highest overnight audience since the Gavin and Stacey finale, which attracted 12.3 million on Christmas Day last year, the BBC said.
The show pitted ‘faithfuls’ against ‘traitors’ in a game of deceit and treachery played out in a castle, with 35-year-old Marler, who retired from rugby last year, emerging as the one of the breakout stars.
He was double-crossed in the final by Ted Lasso star Nick Mohammed, even though they had formed an alliance in order to beat traitors Cat Burns, the singer-songwriter, and comedian Alan Carr.
Mohammed changed his mind at the last minute and voted to banish Marler – to cries of anguish, external from England’s training base where players were willing on their former team-mate.
“We were all watching in the team room. Joe seemed to have read it perfectly and he had Nick onside and it was all going swimmingly,” second row Alex Coles said ahead of Saturday’s clash with Fiji.
“I guess they edited it to make you think it was all going to go exactly to plan and then the rug was pulled right out underneath him.
“We all expected that he was actually going to do really well if he was given a bit of time for people to get to know him.
“Joe’s a very charismatic person, he’s got a great sense of humour and it’s nice to see a different side of a rugby player being shown to the general public.
“We’re all really pleased for him. Shame he got backstabbed at the end, but that’s the way the game goes I guess.
“He’s shown his character, his personality and I’m sure off the back of it he will do really well if he wants to stay in that media space.”