The Traitors
Also known as	The Traitors UK
Genre	Reality Game show
Based on	De Verraders by Marc Pos Jasper Hoogendoorn
Presented by	Claudia Winkleman
Theme music composer	Sam Watts[1]
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language	English
No. of series	4
No. of episodes	48
Production
Production locations	Ardross, Highland, Scotland
Camera setup	Multi-camera
Running time	59 minutes
Production company	Studio Lambert
Original release
Network	BBC One
Release	29 November 2022 (2022-11-29) – present
Related
The Celebrity Traitors The Traitors US International versions

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. It was first broadcast 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 social deduction game similar to Mafia or Werewolf, set in and among the grounds of Ardross Castle in Scotland. During the game, a small group of contestants become the titular "Traitors," and must work together to eliminate the other contestants 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. ^[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.^[5][6]

The British show also acts as a sister show to the American version, with both being produced by Studio Lambert for the BBC and Peacock. They share the same location, props, and missions, with the main difference being the hosts.^[7]

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 contestants 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 number or identity. Should the Faithful contestants eliminate all the Traitors, they will share the prize fund. If a Traitor makes it to the end, they receive the money.

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 they will not arrive for breakfast. The group then take part in a mission to win money for the prize fund.

Each day, the group participates in missions to win money for the prize fund, which can reach up to £120,000 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.

Usually at the end of each day, the group will participate in the Banishment Ceremony – where the players gather at the Round Table to discuss who they wish to vote out before individually voting for a player to banish. Players cast their votes privately before revealing their vote in turn to everyone. The person obtaining the most votes is banished from the game and must reveal their affiliation. In a tied vote, a run-off vote occurs between those tied with the highest vote tallies. If a second tie occurs, one player is chosen for banishment randomly among the tied players.

If during the game a Traitor is banished, the remaining Traitors may 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 the attempted seduction. If only one Traitor remains, other than on the last episode, the Traitor instead delivers an ultimatum face-to-face with the recruit: if the player declines they are immediately murdered, and if they accept the pair can immediately murder another Faithful.^[8]

After the final Round Table, the remaining players (typically four) gather at a fire and participate in the End Game. The group are given an opportunity to end the game by unanimous vote. Any vote to continue will lead to another immediate banishment vote. When a unanimous decision is reached to end the game — 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. To make their choice they hand Claudia one of two pouches: one marked "banish again" and another marked "end game". Each of the pouches is then thrown into a fire where "banish again" pouches cause the flames to turn red and "end game" pouches make them green. All active players see how each player voted.

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,^[9] 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 other players whatever they want about the contents of the meeting. In Series 3, the Seer's meeting happened before the final Round Table.

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.^[10]

The first series was recorded in May 2022,^[11] and action took place at Ardross Castle in Ross-shire, Scotland.^[12]

Presenter Claudia Winkleman was initially hesitant to host the programme but after watching the Dutch series became "obsessed" and jokingly said she "booked a train to Scotland".^[13]

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.^[14]

On 27 February 2023, the BBC announced that the show had been renewed for a second series, with Winkleman returning to host.^[15] 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.^[16] On 1 September 2023, it was announced that filming had begun.^[17]

On 3 November 2023, it was revealed that a third series had been commissioned.^[18] In January 2024, it was announced that applications for Series 3 had begun, with almost 300,000 applications received.^[19][20] The series was filming as of May 2024.^[21]

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.^[22] Filming for both versions took place during 2025.^[23] Applications for the fourth series opened on 22 August 2024 and closed on 9 February 2025.^[24]

In March 2026, BBC announced a three-year deal that will keep The Traitors and The Celebrity Traitors in production until 2030.^[25]

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.^[35][36] 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".^[37] 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."^[35] 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."^[38]

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.^[15]

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.^[15]

The Traitors : UK viewers per episode (millions)

Series		Episode number												Average
		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12
	1	3.88	3.14	N/A	3.33	3.13	3.37	3.76	3.75	3.60	4.09	4.32	4.73	3.74
	2	6.22	5.91	5.94	6.54	6.56	6.70	7.17	7.16	7.24	7.56	7.71	8.16	6.91
	3	9.44	8.74	8.81	9.20	9.17	9.21	9.37	9.47	9.40	9.46	9.63	9.98	9.32
	4	11.85	11.04	11.20	11.74	11.51	11.99	11.58	11.62	11.76	11.61	11.67	11.94	11.63

Audience measurement performed by Broadcasters' Audience Research Board^[39]

To accompany the second series in January 2024, a follow-up television programme and BBC Sounds podcast 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.^[40] The final episode of Uncloaked which aired on BBC Two directly after the final received 3.97 million viewers.^[41] Uncloaked returned with the same format to accompany the third series in 2025. For the fourth series in 2026, episodes from 2 January onwards the show were moved to BBC One.

On 26 July 2025, Winkleman presented a BBC Proms concert at London’s Royal Albert Hall with music from the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Chorus and the BBC Singers directed by Irish conductor Karen Ní Bhroin. Inspired by the show’s tense and haunting soundtrack, the Prom features melodramatic versions of pop tunes heard in the series, from Britney Spears’s Toxic and Olivia Rodrigo’s Vampire to Billie Eilish’s Bad Guy, all given a signature gothic, symphonic twist performed alongside guest vocalists Andrea Lykke Oehlenschlæger, HAYLA and Darrell Smith.^[42] The matinee performance of the Prom was broadcast live on BBC Radio 3 and repeated on BBC Radio 2 on 24 August; highlights were later shown on 1 January 2026 on BBC One.

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.^[43]

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".^[44]

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.^[45] The celebrity edition aired fast-tracked on 10Play and also aired on linear television on Network 10 on a 2 week delay.^[46]

In the United States, the show is available to stream on Peacock, the broadcaster of the American version.^[47]

In Canada, the show is available to stream on Crave.^[48] 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.^[49]

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.^[50]

In Ireland, the first series was added to the RTÉ Player in the beginning of July 2025 before the series began airing on RTÉ2 ahead of RTÉ's own version of the show premiering in late August.

• The Traitors at BBC Online
• The Traitors at IMDb