Claudia Winkleman with the stars of The Celebrity Traitors' first season

As reality shows go, the line-up for the first season of The Celebrity Traitors is going to be a hard one to beat.

The cast of Celebrity Traitors’ inaugural outing featured a host of impressive names – including many who’d never done reality TV before – that encompassed award-winning broadcasters and actors, athletes at the top of their game, chart-topping musicians and all-round national treasures.

But as revered as many of the celebrities on the line-up were, other famous faces turned down the BBC’s offer to appear on the show outright for a variety of reasons.

Here are nine recognisable names who reportedly said no to appearing on The Celebrity Traitors…

Ricky Gervais

When The Celebrity Traitors was initially confirmed to be in the works last year, Ricky Gervais was one of the first names reported to be on bosses’ wishlist.

However, he quickly made it clear that he had no intention of taking part because he’s “too busy” and, in his words, “there’s no way they could afford me”.

Jonathan Ross later claimed that the Office creator phoned him about the Celebrity Traitors offer, but Ricky was unconvinced because he felt that “bigger names” would be easier targets – which the talk show host conceded after the series aired that he was completely “right” about.

Richard Osman

Meanwhile, former Pointless presenter Richard Osman has openly said he turned down the show because there was no way for producers to guarantee his one criteria for taking part.

“I said I would only do it if I could be a........

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