The Celebrity Traitors is set to return next year for a second season, the BBC confirmed today (November 10).
The finale of the show’s first season – a spin-off of the regular Traitors series – aired on Thursday last week (November 6) with a reported 11million viewers, and it’s set to come back to BBC One and BBC iPlayer next year.
While the first season of The Traitors aired in 2022, it took until 2025 to air a celebrity version in the UK. However, it became an instant success with its first episode getting 14.8million views over 28 days and becoming the most-watched single episode of TV this year.
Fans online described the finale as “perhaps the best piece of reality TV in years” and the last 10 minutes as “Maybe the best ten minutes of television ever to have existed in the entire history of time.”
The show also became the biggest unscripted show across the entire UK market since 2021, while a new report has revealed that the entire The Traitors franchise has boosted Scotland’s economy by £21.8million since 2022 – it’s set in and around Ardross Castle in the Highlands.
Host Claudia Winkleman will return, too, while companion show The Celebrity Traitors: Uncloaked will also come back to BBC Two, BBC iPlayer and BBC Sounds.
In a statement, BBC head of entertainment Kalpna Patel-Knight said, “Studio Lambert have done an outstanding job as The Celebrity Traitors has well and truly captivated the nation, becoming a bona fide highlight of the year bringing record numbers of people together to enjoy every twist and turn.
“In 2026 the doors of the castle will be opened again to welcome celebrity players to the game to see who can charm, who can scheme and ultimately who can survive in series two which promises to be just as unmissable as the first.”
Season four of the non-celebrity Traitors could be returning soon, too. The three previous seasons all aired around Christmas, and the BBC have teased a fourth season for next year – and possibly “early 2026”. However, TV over Christmas and the New Year is usually only confirmed at the beginning of December, so fans won’t find out yet.
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