''The Traitors'' is a British reality television series broadcast on

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, p ...

, based on the Dutch series ''

De Verraders ''De Verraders'' (Dutch for: ''The Traitors'') is a Dutch television show broadcast by RTL 4 which premiered in 2021. The format of the show is similar to the party game ''Mafia'' and it takes place at and around Castle Erenstein in Kerkrade, Net ...

'', which premiered on 29 November 2022 and is hosted by

Claudia Winkleman Claudia Anne Irena Winkleman (born 15 January 1972) is an English television presenter, radio personality, film critic and journalist. Between 2004 and 2010, she presented '' Strictly Come Dancing: It Takes Two'' on weeknights on BBC Two. Since ...

. The first week's episodes were uploaded onto

BBC iPlayer BBC iPlayer (stylised as iPLAYER or BBC iPLAYER) is a video on demand service from the BBC. The service is available on a wide range of devices, including mobile phones and tablets, personal computers and smart televisions. iPlayer services del ...

following the airing of the first, with each subsequent episode being available on BBC One only before being uploaded to iPlayer.

Format

22 strangers arrive at a castle in the

Scottish Highlands The Highlands ( sco, the Hielands; gd, a’ Ghàidhealtachd , 'the place of the Gaels') is a historical region of Scotland. Culturally, the Highlands and the Lowlands diverged from the Late Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland Sco ...

as "Faithful" contestants – hoping to share a prize fund worth up to £120,000. Amongst 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 steal 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 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 Immunity may refer to: Medicine * Immunity (medical), resistance of an organism to infection or disease * ''Immunity'' (journal), a scientific journal published by Cell Press Biology * Immune system Engineering * Radiofrequence immunity desc ...

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. 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.

Production

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 Studio Lambert is an independent British television production company based in London, Manchester and Los Angeles. It creates and produces scripted and unscripted programs for British and American broadcasters, cable networks and streaming platf ...

Scotland. The show was recorded in May 2022, and action took place at Ardross Castle 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".

Contestants

22 contestants competed on the first series of ''The Traitors''. In a minor twist, Alex & Tom had a pre-existing relationship as they were dating before competing in the series. Amos and Kieran were apparently banished from the game, on arrival at the castle, after placing themselves in a line as least likely to win the show. However, they were both reintroduced to the show in a twist during episode 5.

Voting history

Key : The contestant was a Faithful. : The contestant was a Traitor. : The contestant was ineligible to vote. : The contestant casting this vote was on Trial at this Round Table and were one of the only people subsequently eligible for being Murdered. : The contestant casting this vote won a Shield and was immune from being murdered, but was still eligible for Banishment. Notes

Missions

Episodes

Notes

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 "Mafia" is an informal term that is used to describe criminal organizations that bear a strong similarity to the original “Mafia”, the Sicilian Mafia and Italian Mafia. The central activity of such an organization would be the arbitration of d ...

wink murder Wink murder is a party game or parlour game in which a secretly selected player is able to "kill" others by winking at them, while the surviving players try to identify the killer. The game is also variously known as murder wink, killer, murder i ...

. 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 ''The White Lotus'' is an American black comedy-drama anthology television series created by Mike White for HBO. It follows the guests and employees of the fictional White Lotus resort chain, whose stay is affected by their various psychosoci ...

'' meets '' Big Brother 1''". Harrison Brocklehurst, ''

The Tab ''The Tab'' is a tabloid-style youth news site, published by Tab Media Ltd. It was launched at the University of Cambridge and has since expanded to over 80 universities in the United Kingdom and United States. The name originates from both an ...

'', believed that social media helped the success of the show: "The memes and everyone live-

tweeting Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, ...

it has played a big part in its success. Nobody wants to miss out on a reality TV show that everyone is talking about." Isobel Lewis of ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'' 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."

Aftermath

Contestant Maddy Smedley urged others to think carefully about applying for the next show, and said she “wouldn’t recommend it for people for their sanity and mental health”.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Traitors (British TV series), The 2022 British television series debuts 2020s British reality television series 2020s British game shows BBC television game shows BBC reality television shows Television shows filmed in Scotland Television shows set in Scotland British television series based on Dutch television series English-language television shows Television series by All3Media