If you ask anyone who knows Amol Rajan, they will leave you in no doubt about how desperate he was to win Celebrity Traitors.
Ambitious and more than a touch arrogant, the second he signed for the momentous BBC reality show he had his eyes set on being crowned king of Ardross Castle – and would trample on anyone to do so.
It was, too, a crucial plank of his plan to become a YouTuber extraordinaire after quitting his £320,000-a-year job as presenter of Radio 4’s Today programme.Â
Remaining on Traitors as long as possible was key to his success in going it alone.
But after he became the first celebrity to be murdered when traitors Richard E Grant and Maya Jama recruited comedian James Acaster instead of him, sources have revealed how that setback could be a ‘disaster’ for Rajan’s new venture.
He is already asking fans to subscribe to his new website The Amol Rajan Connection and its YouTube channel for up to £999 for a ‘top tier’ lifetime membership, including the ‘Pina Colada’ subscription which will include access to events.
Hoping to appeal to an audience younger than Today listeners, Rajan, 43, is promoting it on TikTok.Â
‘It was all perfectly lined up by Amol, who is a very clever guy who doesn’t miss a trick,’ says an associate of the University Challenge host.
Amol Rajan, left, pictured with James Acaster, had been desperate to win Celebrity Traitors
Amol is asking fans to subscribe to his new website The Amol Rajan Connection and its YouTube channel for up to £999 for a ‘top tier’ lifetime membership
‘He signed for Traitors, left the BBC and started putting his YouTube project out there. It should have all been so good but he lasted just one episode.
‘It has screwed the plan and it is devastating for him.
‘He will sink without trace, the first person to be kicked off always does on these programmes.
‘There are a lot of people who have worked with Amol over the years who are having a little giggle at his early exit.’
Along with this YouTube offering, Rajan has trademarked his name for a range of goods which could see everything from sunglasses – he is often pictured in aviators – to clothes and even cookware flooding shop shelves.
He applied in late July to trademark his company The Amol Rajan Connection with specific clauses to cover eyewear and kitchenware, including glass, porcelain and earthenware.
He has also announced a ‘strategic partnership’ with Waitrose.
It said new content on LinkedIn, TikTok, Threads, Instagram and YouTube Shorts would focus on ‘crucial topics including sustainability, quality and British farming’.
Following his Traitors exit, Rajan, formerly editor of The Independent newspaper, told how it was ‘gutting’ for him to go first and he was ‘grieving’.
Yesterday, talking to his former colleague Simon Jack on Today, he insisted that it was not only him who had been suspicious of actor Grant, which led to Rajan being summoned by Grant and Maya Jama and then murdered.
Rajan has told how it was ‘gutting’ for him to go first and he was ‘grieving’
But the show’s edit made it look as if he was Grant’s main challenger.
‘If there is a tactic which is generally effective then you should stay schtum,’ he said.
‘There were lots of people who were having a go at Richard as you can imagine,’ he added.
‘We all had a go at him because he said he was a traitor which has never happened before and a completely ludicrous thing to do.
‘So it wasn’t just me doing it. There were other people asking hard questions too but my strategy got me this close to becoming a traitor which I’d have loved.’
He also revealed he had since had lunch with Grant who apologised for murdering him, saying he went ‘completely mad’.
He also said the comedians in the show have an advantage because they know one another.
‘Rob and Romesh know one another very well,’ he said. ‘They are better at reading the other people if they know them well.’
