The Traitors
Also known asThe Traitors UK
Genre
  • Reality
  • Game show
Based onDe Verraders
by Marc Pos
Presented byClaudia Winkleman
Theme music composerSam Watts[1]
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
No. of series1
No. of episodes12
Production
Camera setupMulti-camera
Running time59 minutes
Production companyStudio Lambert
Original release
NetworkBBC One
Release29 November 2022 (2022-11-29) –
present

The Traitors (also known as The Traitors UK outside of the UK) is a British reality television series broadcast on BBC One, based on the Dutch series De Verraders, which premiered on 29 November 2022 and is hosted by Claudia Winkleman.

Following the premise of other versions of De Verraders, the show features a group of contestants participating in a game similar to the party game Mafia – In which a small group of contestants become the titular "Traitors", and must work together to eliminate the other contestants in order to win a grand prize, while the remaining contestants become "Faithful" and are tasked to discover and banish the Traitors by voting them out, to win the grand prize.

The first week's episodes were uploaded onto BBC iPlayer following the airing of the first, with each subsequent episode being available on BBC One only before being uploaded to iPlayer.[2][3][4]

On 27 February 2023, the BBC announced that the show had been renewed for a second series, with Winkleman returning to host.[5]

Format

22 strangers arrive at a castle in the Scottish Highlands as "Faithful" contestants – hoping to share a prize fund worth up to £120,000. Among them are the "Traitors" – a group of contestants selected by host Claudia Winkleman on the first day, whose goal is to eliminate the Faithfuls and claim the prize for themselves. Should the Faithful contestants eliminate all the Traitors, they will share the prize fund, but if any Traitors make it to the end, they win the money instead.

Each night, the Traitors come together and decide upon one Faithful contestant to "murder" – and that person will leave the game immediately. The remaining Faithful contestants will not know who has been eliminated until the following day when that person does not enter the Castle for breakfast. The group then take part in a mission to win money for the prize fund. Some challenges will also offer an opportunity for players to visit the Armoury – during which one player will randomly and secretly be awarded the Shield – which awards the player immunity from being Murdered, but not from the Banishment Vote. An attempted murder on the shield holder will result in no player being eliminated by Murder.

At the end of each day, the players will participate in a Round Table, where the players discuss who to vote out before individually voting for a player to be banished. Players cast their votes privately before revealing their votes in turn to everyone once all votes are locked-in, and may give a brief rationale for the vote. The person who received the most votes for banishment is banished from the game and must reveal their affiliation.[lower-alpha 1] If a Traitor is eliminated, the remaining Traitors may be given the option to recruit a Faithful to join them. If the Faithful accepts, they become a Traitor from that point on.[6]

Production

The series was filmed at Ardross Castle (pictured in 2003)

The UK show was ordered 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.[7]

The show was recorded in May 2022,[8] and action took place at Ardross Castle[9] in Scotland.

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".[10]

In May 2023, Studio Lambert revealed 40,000 people had applied to take part in the second series, in comparison with 1,500 who'd applied for series one.[11] On 1 September 2023 it was announced that filming had begun. [12]

Series overview

SeriesEpisodesOriginally released
First releasedLast released
11229 November 2022 (2022-11-29)22 December 2022 (2022-12-22)

Series 1 (2022)

No.
overall		No. in
series		Title [13]Original air dateUK viewers
(millions) [14]
11"Episode 1"29 November 2022 (2022-11-29)3.88
22"Episode 2"30 November 2022 (2022-11-30)3.14
33"Episode 3"1 December 2022 (2022-12-01)<2.71[lower-alpha 2]
44"Episode 4"6 December 2022 (2022-12-06)3.33
55"Episode 5"7 December 2022 (2022-12-07)3.13
66"Episode 6"8 December 2022 (2022-12-08)3.37
77"Episode 7"13 December 2022 (2022-12-13)3.76
88"Episode 8"15 December 2022 (2022-12-15)[lower-alpha 3]3.75
99"Episode 9"16 December 2022 (2022-12-16)[lower-alpha 3]3.60
1010"Episode 10"20 December 2022 (2022-12-20)4.09
1111"Episode 11"21 December 2022 (2022-12-21)4.32
1212"Episode 12"22 December 2022 (2022-12-22)4.73

Reception

Critical reception

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.[15][16] 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".[17] 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."[15] 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."[18]

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.[5]

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.[5]

Awards and nominations

Year Award CategoryNominee(s) ResultRef.
2023 28th National Television Awards Reality Competition The Traitors Won
Edinburgh International Television Festival Best Entertainment The Traitors Won
2023 TV Times Awards Best Presenter Claudia Winkleman Pending
Best Entertainment Show The Traitors Pending
British Academy Television Awards Best Reality and Constructed Factual The Traitors Won
Best Entertainment Performance Claudia Winkleman Won
Memorable Moment The Traitors: The final roundtable Nominated
Royal Television Society Programme Awards Entertainment The Traitors Won
Entertainment Performance Claudia Winkleman Won
2024 2024 TV Choice Awards Best Reality Show The Traitors Pending

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.[19]

In the United States, the show is available to stream on Peacock, the broadcaster of the American version.[20]

In Canada, the show is available to stream on Crave.[21] The Canadian version of the series began on Oct. 2nd, 2023 on CTV

In New Zealand, the show is available to stream on ThreeNow, the same broadcaster of the New Zealand version.[22]

Aftermath

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".[23]

After the first series, the BBC launched a Traitors card game and puzzle book were released. In September 2023 a board game, called The Traitors, was released.[24]

Notes

  1. ↑ As a tie for the highest number of votes never arose during the series, the process that would have been followed in such a case was not revealed.
  2. ↑ This episode did not make it into the top 50 most viewed programmes of the week and therefore full figures are not available.
  3. 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.

References

  1. ↑ "Sam Watts | Composer – Film and television composer". Retrieved 23 December 2022.
  2. ↑ Dubey, Shivani (11 November 2022). "Strictly's Claudia Winkleman to host BBC's psychological reality competition The Traitors". Digital Spy. Retrieved 8 December 2022.
  3. ↑ Duke, Simon (8 December 2022). "The Traitors remaining episodes dates confirmed by BBC". ChronicleLive. Retrieved 8 December 2022.
  4. ↑ "The Traitors: Why viewers became so loyal to the BBC reality series". BBC News. 22 December 2022. Retrieved 22 December 2022.
  5. 1 2 3 "The BBC is 100% faithful to The Traitors as series two confirmed". www.bbc.co.uk. 27 February 2023. Retrieved 27 February 2023.
  6. ↑ "BBC One – The Traitors – The Traitors: How the Show Works". BBC. Retrieved 12 December 2022.
  7. ↑ Shaun Linden (5 October 2021). "Psychological adventure series 'The Traitors' for BBC One". ATV Today. Retrieved 22 December 2022.
  8. ↑ Brett, Ivan (21 December 2022). "Ivan 🗡️ The Traitors on Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved 21 December 2022.
  9. ↑ Metro (26 November 2022). "The Traitors: Where is the BBC One series filmed? All about Ardross Castle". MetroUK. Retrieved 9 December 2022.
  10. ↑ "Claudia Winkleman originally turned down The Traitors hosting role". Radio Times. Retrieved 1 January 2023.
  11. ↑ Lewis, Isobel (17 May 2023). "The Traitors producers tease series 2 tagline after 40,000 people apply". Independent.co.uk. Retrieved 18 October 2023.
  12. ↑ Nisbet, Megan (1 September 2023). "BBC The Traitors bosses warn 'the game is going to be different' in exciting series 2 update". Wales Online. Retrieved 18 October 2023.
  13. ↑ "The Traitors – Series 1". BBC. Choose appropriate episode. Retrieved 15 December 2022.
  14. ↑ "Most Viewed Programmes (See relevant week(s))". BARB.
  15. 1 2 McIntosh, Steven (22 December 2022). "The Traitors: Why viewers became so loyal to the BBC reality series". BBC News. Retrieved 22 December 2022.
  16. ↑ Long, Camilla (4 December 2022). "The Traitors: I'm a TV critic, get me out of here". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 22 December 2022.
  17. ↑ Nicholson, Rebecca (19 December 2022). "I'm 100% faithful: The Traitors is the most exquisite reality TV of the year". The Guardian. Retrieved 22 December 2022.
  18. ↑ Lewis, Isobel (29 November 2022). "The Traitors might not be very Christmassy, but it sure is fun – review". The Independent. Retrieved 22 December 2022.
  19. ↑ "Sleep with One Eye Open: Traitors US and Traitors UK Now Available on 10 Play". 23 March 2023.
  20. ↑ "UK, Australian versions of the Traitors uncovered by Peacock for US".
  21. ↑ "U.K., U.S. & Australian Versions of "The Traitors" Now Streaming on Crave". 9 April 2023.
  22. ↑ "New to streaming: What to watch on Netflix NZ, Neon and more this week". 4 September 2023.
  23. ↑ Jamie Body (23 January 2023). "Traitors star Maddy Smedley cautions actors against appearing in reality series". The Stage.
  24. ↑ Kate Goodacre (September 2023). "The Traitors board game is finally available to buy". Digital Spy. Retrieved 21 October 2023.
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