The Celebrity Traitors launch episode drew 15.7m viewers to the BBC, according to the broadcaster, and the second episode reached 15.2m after seven days. In seven days the opener passed the 14.8m that the first celebrity series’ opener took 28 days to collect. The BBC calls it the biggest Traitors launch yet, across both celebrity and non-celebrity versions, and the biggest launch episode of any series in the entire market, scripted or non-scripted, since at least 2022.
Where the audience came from
Across the first two episodes, 58% of viewing, or 8.9m, came through BBC iPlayer. Some 3.1m viewers were aged 16 to 34, a fifth of the launch audience and the broadcaster’s biggest volume for younger viewers to date.
Studio Lambert Scotland makes the series for BBC iPlayer and BBC One, and Kalpna Patel-Knight, the BBC’s Head of Entertainment Commissioning, commissioned it. Host Claudia Winkleman welcomed 21 famous faces to the castle. They are playing for up to £100,000 for their chosen charities. The final airs on Friday 30 October at 8pm on BBC One and iPlayer.
How the game works
The Traitors began as De Verraders, which aired on RTL 4 in the Netherlands in 2021. IDTV, an All3Media company, created it. It is a social deduction game in the vein of Mafia, Werewolf and Among Us, set in a historic location such as a castle or manor. A small group become Traitors, and only they know who else belongs to the group. The rest are Faithfuls, who must vote the Traitors out.
On most nights the Traitors pick one Faithful to murder, and that player simply fails to appear at breakfast. Then come missions that build the prize fund. Some versions let players visit an armoury where a shield is secretly awarded. A shield protects against murder but not against the Banishment Vote. At a Round Table at the end of most days, players discuss, vote in private and then reveal their choices in turn.
If only two Traitors remain, they can recruit a Faithful instead of committing a murder. The Faithful may decline, and a refusal may or may not get them murdered at once. Accepting makes them a Traitor from then on.
After the final Round Table, the survivors vote on whether to end the game. The vote must be unanimous, and if anyone votes to continue, another banishment follows. When the game ends, or when two players are left, everyone reveals their allegiance. Faithfuls share the prize fund. If any Traitor reaches the end, the Traitors take all of it.
A stage version is on the way too. The Traitors: Acts of Betrayal, a cycle of five plays written by John Finnemore and directed by Robert Hastie, opens at the Gillian Lynne Theatre in London’s West End in May 2027.
Sources
- The Celebrity Traitors launch episode attracts a phenomenal 15.7m viewers to the BBC
- The Traitors
- The Traitors: New Blood Recap: Go Home Already
Photo: Alexandra Zelena / Unsplash (Unsplash License)
