The Traitors (also known as The Traitors UK) is a British reality television series broadcast on BBC One, based on the Dutch series De Verraders. The show premiered on 29 November 2022 and is hosted by Claudia Winkleman.
Following the premise of De Verraders, the show features a group of contestants participating in a game similar to Mafia (or Werewolf), where an informed minority (known as the "Traitors") must eliminate an uninformed majority (known as the "Faithfuls"). The "Faithfuls" are tasked to discover the "Traitors" and vote them out of the game. The series is filmed in and around Ardross Castle.
After the first episode aired on BBC One, the first three episodes were all released on BBC iPlayer. Each subsequent episode has been released one at a time. While the first and second series featured 22 contestants, the third series featured 25.[2][3][4]
Since the show launched, it has become a huge success for the BBC, with viewing figures growing substantially each series. It has become one of the most watched British reality gameshows of all time. The show has gained a cult following due to its success.[5][6]
Format
Over twenty contestants arrive at a castle in the Scottish Highlands where they will spend their entire time for the duration of the game. On the arrival day, host Claudia Winkleman picks at least three contentestants to be called "Traitors" and the rest are automatically called "Faithful". The television audience can see who have been chosen as Traitors, but the Faithful do not know their identity.
At the end of each day, all contestants meet at a Round Table to discuss who they think are Traitors. They then cast votes that are revealed one-by-one. The person with the most votes reveals their identity — and regardless of whether they are a Faithful or Traitor — are immediately banished.[a] On most nights, the Traitors meet in private and agree to "murder" one Faithful who leaves the game immediately. The remaining Faithful only know who has been murdered at breakfast next morning.
Each day, the group participates in missions to win money for the prize fund which can reach circa. £100,000 by the end of the game. During the missions, any contestant may separately win a shield that awards that player immunity from being murdered, but not from being banished. In some cases, the contestant has the right or ability not to disclose if they won the shield, or to tell a restricted group.
If during the game the number of Traitors drops to two, then they will be given the option to "seduce" or recruit a Faithful to join them instead of murdering. Seduced Faithfuls may decline, and can decide whether to tell the other Faithfuls of their decision. If only one Traitor remains, they seduce their Faithful face-to-face before immediately committing the next murder; if the player declines to join, then they are immediately murdered.[7]
After the final Round Table, the remaining players stand around a fire pit and vote on whether to end the game. A unanimous vote to end the game is required. Any vote to continue, will lead to another immediate banishment vote. When a unanimous vote to end the game occurs — or when there are only two players left — the remaining players reveal whether they are Faithful or Traitors. If they are all Faithful contestants, they will share the prize fund, however, if any of these final players are Traitors then they will share the prize fund amongst themselves.
For Series 3, in the final Round Table and for all subsequent banishments around the fire pit, banished players no longer reveal their true affiliation. In addition, the role of "Seer" was introduced[8], where a player, either Faithful or Traitor, can win the right in a task to meet in private with a player of their choosing who has to reveal their true identity to the Seer (the Seer's true identity is not revealed to the chosen player). Both players can tell the others players whatever they want about the contents of the meeting. In Series 3, the Seer's meeting happened before the final Round Table.
Production
The series was filmed at Ardross Castle (pictured in 2003)
The UK show was commissioned by the BBC in October 2021 following the airing of the Dutch series earlier that year. The series was to be produced by Studio Lambert Scotland.[9]
Presenter Claudia Winkleman was initially hesitant to host the programme but after watching the Dutch series became "obsessed" and jokingly "booked a train to Scotland".[12]
Applicants had to submit a video application and go through several rounds of interviews, as well as a psychological assessment. Contestants were filmed constantly over a long day, finding out just before breakfast whether they had been 'murdered'. 'Murdered' contestants were driven away immediately and sent home, without being able to say any goodbyes. Contestants were assigned a welfare person to help with their well-being.[13]
On 27 February 2023, the BBC announced that the show had been renewed for a second series, with Winkleman returning to host.[14] In May 2023, Studio Lambert revealed 40,000 people had applied to take part in the second series, in comparison with 1,500 who had applied for series one.[15] On 1 September 2023, it was announced that filming had begun.[16]
On 3 November 2023, it was revealed that a third series had been commissioned.[17] In January 2024, it was announced that applications for Series 3 had begun, with almost 300,000 applications received.[18][19] The series was filming as of May 2024.[20]
In August 2024, ahead of the release of the third series, the BBC announced that the show had not only been renewed for a fourth series but a celebrity series will also be produced. Filming for both versions will commence during 2025.[21] Applications for the fourth series opened on 22 August 2024 and closed on 9 February 2025.[22]
The series was generally well received by critics, who praised the programme for being "fresh, yet familiar", likening it to party games such as Mafia or wink murder.[30][31] Rebecca Nicholson of The Guardian says the format "feels like a revival of the early, more innocent days of reality TV", calling it "The White Lotus meets Big Brother 1".[32]The Tab believed that social media helped the success of the show: "The memes and everyone live-tweeting it has played a big part in its success. Nobody wants to miss out on a reality TV show that everyone is talking about."[30] Isobel Lewis of The Independent was more critical, however, saying it "definitely isn't a perfect reality show, or even the best in its genre right now, but it is pretty entertaining."[33]
Viewership
The series saw an average audience of 5.4 million, with a peak of 6.2 million for the first episode. By the end of February 2023, The Traitors had been viewed over 34 million times on BBC iPlayer.[14]
The BBC stated that The Traitors was the biggest new series for young audiences across all BBC content in 2022, with a 1.3 million average audience across the series and a peak of 1.5 million for the final.[14]
To accompany the second series in January 2024, a follow-up television programme and BBC Soundspodcast was introduced, called The Traitors: Uncloaked produced by Listen. The first episode aired on 5 January 2024. It was hosted by Ed Gamble and broadcast on BBC Two.[35] The final episode of Uncloaked which aired on BBC2 directly after the final received 3.97 million viewers.[36]
Aftermath
Series one contestant Maddy Smedley urged others to think carefully about applying for the next series, and said she "wouldn’t recommend it for people for their sanity and mental health".[37]
After the first series, the BBC published a Traitors card game and puzzle book. In September 2023, a board game, called The Traitors, was released.[38]
For Series 2, a Traitors app was released, allowing users to predict what will happen in the series and gain points for correct predictions. It was described as "the perfect synchronicity between programme content and interactive platform".[39]
International broadcast
In Australia, the series was made available to stream on 10 Play in March 2023, as a companion to the Australian version aired by the network.[40]
In the United States, the show is available to stream on Peacock, the broadcaster of the American version.[41]
In Canada, the show is available to stream on Crave.[42] The Canadian version of the series began on 2 October 2023 on CTV.
In New Zealand, the show is available to stream on ThreeNow, the same broadcaster as the New Zealand version.[43]
In Sweden, the first series was made available with Swedish subtitles on TV4 Play not long after the premiere of Förrädarna, TV4's own version. Many other countries have followed the same route.
In Poland in December 2024, the first series was broadcast on TVN 7 in nighttime slot and each episode (after it had aired) was made available to watch on a streaming service Player.
The Croatian network RTL, which is set to broadcast the Croatian edition of the series, began releasing The Traitors UK on its streaming service Voyo on 1 January 2025.[44]
Notes
↑ In the event of a tie, the tied players make a final plea before the remaining players vote between them again – if a second tie occurs, one player is chosen for banishment randomly among the tied players.
↑ This episode did not make it into the top 50 most viewed programmes of the week and therefore full figures are not available.
1 2 This episode was originally scheduled for the night before, however it was rescheduled due to changes to the BBC schedule for this week due to the 2022 Qatar World Cup.
1 2 This episode was released on BBC iPlayer on 3January2024(2024-01-03).
↑ This episode was released on BBC iPlayer on 1January2025(2025-01-01).
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