The Traitors AU: the mysterious case of missing contestant Paul McNeill

The Traitors AU landed on BBC iPlayer – and like with the UK and the US version, fans have been hooked as the Faithfuls and the Traitors attempted to win the jackpot prize. While the show has the usual flair for drama and intrigue, there is one mystery that we would love to get our head around; just what on earth happened to a certain contestant named Paul.

In the show, Paul, 61, is a British financial investigator who is selected as a member of the Faithful team. The only problem is that – for some unbeknownst reason – Paul is barely seen on the show.

While each contestant is given airtime, including confessionals and background information, Paul was almost entirely cut from the edit, with The Traitors Wiki page confirming that his average confessional time was 0.182 per episode, the lowest in any franchise.

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Paul's lack of airtime did not go unnoticed by the internet, with one person tweeting: "Give me a documentary, at least three long reads and a sit-down interview with Paul about the edit he received on #TheTraitors Australia," while another person added: "What on Earth was the story with Paul? I’ve never seen an edit like it. He was almost removed from the entire show. No back story shown, no exit interview in the car, mic muted on a few occasions, I think he said five sentences in ten episodes?"

The editing is truly bizarre when watching the show, with the action often cutting away from Paul, or only showing him when one of his comments is essential to viewers. His scenes were even cut short during the Banishment votes – so what on earth happened?

Since there has been no official word about the situation (HELLO! has reached out to the show's production company for comment), we can only go on what we have learned from Paul himself, and other contestants.

Replying to a fan wondering why Paul was cut out of the show, Dirk Strachan-Thornton replied: "He definitely wasn't boring. But he talked a lot about production and it couldn't be included in final edits. So they didn't have a lot from him."

Paul also spoke about the situation on The Traidar: A Traitor's Podcast, saying: "I think maybe because – look, I was the oldest, and these shows if you look at the statistics of people watching it, it's young people… but it was a little bit off. Just watched the episodes again, the camera just moves away all the time. I've yet to see my backstory as well! It's a really good backstory!"

He continued: "We're all being interviewed, we're all being asked the questions… I spoke to [Chloe] when we met for drinks. As well as challenges, we'd have little get-togethers, chopping wood and playing pool. I was paired with Chloe to play backgammon… we're talking and she goes, 'Hold on a minute. There's someone in the room,' and I said, 'Yeah, the cameraman!'" Uh oh, a little mention about the production there!

He continued: "Every single one of [my fellow contestants] wondered why. I got loads of emails. In these shows you've got the loud, the gregarious, and they concentrate on them… if you go deep, you don't have too much at the beginning. But as it went along, 'I was like, well I always wanted to go on a gameshow or a quiz show, and I still want to go on a reality show!'" 

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