VIEWERS who tuned in to the premiere episode of all-new The Traitors were sure they’d spotted a couple hiding in plain sight.
Claudia Winkleman returned as host of the hit BBC reality series with the first episode back delivering plenty of twists and turns.
From introducing a Secret Traitor to a mother and daughter team, a lot happened in the New Year’s Day episode.
But eagle-eyed fans think they saw a number of clues to suggest there was one pair who seemed too familiar for people who were supposedly meeting for the first time.
As in previous seasons the new contestants met each other for the first time on a train heading to the iconic Traitors castle in Scotland.
Ross and Ellie, both from London, seemed to have a flirty exchange when introducing themselves on the train leading some amateur sleuths to suggest they were an item
The same sleuths thought they also saw Ellie grimace at the castle when Ross and Netty realised that they knew each other.
Eager to uncover more, the at-home detectives took their investigations a further step and did some digging into Ellie and Ross online.
They found that Ross had ‘liked’ a post of Ellie’s on the professional networking site LinkedIn posted in July about a promotion she had received, though it’s unclear if him liking it was before or after The Traitors was filmed.
“They could be a couple potentially- I did see Ellie react when Netty recognised Ross,” wrote one fan on Reddit.
Another added: “Their initial scene did have a fake energy. If you live in London and someone else says they do too, especially when you’re young, you wouldn’t be surprised!
“It’s not like both living in Cornwall or Grimsby or something.”
And a third commented: “She glances at him when everyone is sitting in a group after traitors are chosen just at the end of the edit, just a split second but looks like she’s checking his reaction to what’s being said, it looks really obvious to me there!”
As for Ross’ connection to Netty, Traitors producers swore they didn’t know the pair had previously been friends.
In a thrilling opening episode full of surprises, one twist was when nursery teacher Netty exclaimed “Oh my god Ross!” when they came to face-to-face outside Ardross Castle.
The pair explained they met some 15 years ago through a mutual friend.
Executive producer Mike Cotton said: “Ross and Netty was not intentional at all. We actually cast them as individuals.
“We do lengthy background checks on them all to take part. And I think it’s part of that we discovered that they follow each other on social media.
“So we knew that there was a tenuous link, but we didn’t know whether they’d recognise each other or how they would react.
“We didn’t want to exclude them because they knew each other – I just thought it was really interesting to see what it added to the game.”
