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Louise Thomas
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The Traitors will return, but this time with celebrities, the BBC has announced.
Hosted by Claudia Winkleman, the reality TV show follows a group of contestants living together in a castle in the Scottish Highlands. Among them are a secret number of “Traitors”, who must conspire to eliminate others in the group without being detected.
The show has been a huge success for the broadcaster. Earlier this year, over 7 million people tuned into watch contestant Harry Clark, 23, win £95,150 after deceiving his best friend Mollie Pearce in the season finale.
A third season has been recorded and is set to air in January 2025, with a fourth already in the works alongside a celebrity edition.
The news was announced during the Edinburgh TV festival on Thursday (22 August). Details of the cast or release date, however, are yet to be confirmed.
While the US has already tested a celebrity version of the hit show based on the Dutch programme, De Verraders, this will be the UK’s first celebrity season.
In the US, the celebrity Traitors included former Love Island contestant Ekin-Su Cülcüloğlu, Real Housewives stars Tamra Judge and Phaedra Parks, and former Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow.
Reactions to the announcement were mixed in the UK, as some fans insisted that the show was made special by its lack of famous faces.
“Boring! we don’t need celebrities,” wrote one person. “We need to see Traitors get relentlessly tracked down by a ‘live laugh love’ mum from Staines living out her detective dreams.”
Others were more open to the prospect, called it “intriguing”.
Announcing the news, BBC’s head of entertainment, Kalpna Patel-Knight said: “The Traitors has well and truly established itself as an unmissable highlight of the year and the news of a fourth outing, alongside a brand new celebrity version coming to the BBC, will take the series to a whole new level.
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“It will once again be fascinating for our audiences to see who’ll outwit, outplay, and outlast. Let the mind games begin!”
Mike Cotton, creative director for unscripted at Studio Lambert and an executive producer on the show, added: “We are thrilled to be inviting some celebrities into our castle to come and play the game.
“Seeing famous faces navigate the round table or don the infamous green cloaks will be unmissable TV, and what a double treat for the fans with [Season] 4 also confirmed, too.
“There’s a whole lot of exciting treachery and deception yet to come from the Highlands… Claudia’s going to have to pack some extra knitwear.”
