Celebrity The Traitors: A Sure-Fire Hit with the Public?
Celebrity The Traitors will hit BBC screens this year. Discover why placing a bet on it could create murders.
Claudia Winkleman accepts the Reality Competition Award for ‘The Traitors’ at the 2024 National Television Awards. © Getty Images
Key Facts:
- Nineteen celebs will take part in the first Celebrity The Traitors.
- A record 10 million-plus are expected to watch the show.
- Filming is underway. The show has a summer/autumn broadcast slot.
- Brave bookmakers make Nick Mohammed the early betting favourite.
What do you do when you have a hit reality TV show that has gone from zero to a hero average viewing audience of nine million in just three seasons? Make a celebrity version, of course! That’s right, a celebrity edition of The Traitors is coming to BBC screens this year.
The Claudia Winkleman presented series has not only won over the viewing public, it is also a hit with the critics. The suspense-filled show, akin to the party game, ‘wink murder’ has won several prizes, including a TV Bafta, a National Television Award and a Royal Television Society Award.
News of a celebrity version of The Traitors was announced in August 2024. The show’s growing legion of fans has eagerly speculated on who will take part, and who they would like to take part, ever since.
This new version, planned for weekly broadcast slots in late summer and autumn, may well crack the 10 million viewer mark. That figure will better Strictly Come Dancing’s 2024 Grand Final viewership. It garnered an official rating of 9.89 million, according to the Broadcasters Audience Research Board.
Celebrity the Key to Traitor Success?
In mid-May, the BBC finally announced the identities of the presenters, actors, singers, comedians, and sportspeople who will contest the nine-part series. There are enough celebrities among the 19 contenders to suggest that the new show will be the most successful to date.
However, there is no barometer. There have been two series of The Traitors in the US. Both were filmed at the same Scottish location, Ardross Castle, and made by the same production company as the British version.
The first featured 10 celebrities and 10 members of the public. The second was restricted to celebrities and featured former House of Commons Speaker John Bercow and Love Island’s Ekin-Su Cülcüloğlu. Both were murdered!
Who Is Taking Part in Celebrity The Traitors?
The BBC has attracted many of British TV’s big guns for the new UK celebrity version of The Traitors. Amongst the contenders, it is noteworthy that Jonathan Ross will return to the channel. The other celebrity contestants are:
- Alan Carr (comedian)
- Cat Burns (singer/songwriter)
- Celia Imrie (actor)
- Charlotte Church (singer/activist)
- Clare Balding (broadcaster)
- David Olusoga (historian and filmmaker)
- Joe Marler (former England Rugby Player)
- Joe Wilkinson (comedian)
- Kate Garraway (broadcaster)
- Lucy Beaumont (comedian)
- Mark Bonnar (actor)
- Nick Mohammed (actor and comedian)
- Niko Omilana (content creator)
- Paloma Faith (singer/songwriter)
- Ruth Codd (actor)
- Stephen Fry (actor/writer)
- Tameka Empson (actor and comedian)
- Tom Daley (Olympian)
Traitors Betting to Float the Boat
The online sportsbook arm of Betfred has priced up this new celebrity version of The Traitors. It is a brave move as tabloid newspapers recently reported around 100 coffins had appeared floating in a loch regularly used for filming the show.
The sighting suggests the new celebrity series is currently being filmed, which would allow insiders to more than pre-empt the result and potentially exploit their insider knowledge. The show is about deceit, after all!
In 2015, a prominent UK online gambling site reported that it had taken 529 successful bets from suspicious accounts placed on the pre-recorded Great British Bake Off. Alarmingly, 42 new accounts had been opened with the bookmaker during a 72-hour period ahead of the show airing. All were linked to BBC and production company staff members!
Betfred is understandably not giving too much away with its odds. Despite 19 celebrities in the frame, David Olusoga is the biggest outsider on odds of just 12/1. At the top of the betting is Nick Mohammed on 7/4 odds, followed by Celia Imrie (2/1) and Tom Daley (5/2).
