Is The Traitors our new national TV show?
Lloyd Jenkins • Society & Culture • 3 minute read
Image: thykos / Unsplash
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As the days grow shorter and the leaves begin to fall off the trees, it not only marks the start of the Autumn season but heralds a new era of The Traitors. As the second season of The Celebrity Traitors graced our screens this week, the vast attention it receives in an age of streaming leads us to ask one simple question: is The Traitors our new national TV show?
Well, The Traitors has definitely been the cultural hegemon of the 2020s. Since debuting in 2022, the show continues to dominate viewing figures and has positioned itself as the new jewel in the BBC’s crown. As the second season of Celebrity Traitors premiered, it attracted 9m viewers (a 3m increase on the same episode last year), with over half of people watching TV that night choosing to watch Claudia Winkelman choose her new residents of the famous turret. We could sit here all day and talk about viewing figures, which would make it rather obvious that the show is the premier programme on terrestrial TV. However, what really makes The Traitors our national (TV) show is not bodies huddled around screens, but instead its ability to penetrate society.
Image: Lance Reis / Unsplash
Despite only being on our screens for four years, The Traitors boasts a liturgy of viral moments. Whether it was the epic deceit of traitor Harry in season 2, Linda’s iconic head turn, or Alan Carr being the most unserious traitor ever, it has delivered iconic moments that shape conversations the next day, time and time again. I, for one, am often found to be live reacting to the episodes over text with my friends. It is a testament to how invested we, as a nation, have become in The Traitors that we still talk about these moments years after they have happened, and the current celebrity version of the series is no different, even though we are only two episodes in.
The Traitors stands out as the flagship programme of the TV calendar. Question Time fails to attract a mass of viewers, and the figures for Strictly Come Dancing have declined yearly this decade (with former host Claudia Winkleman seeking pastures new after her The Traitors fame). The consistently high viewing figures for the regular and celebrity versions of The Traitors tell us it is more than just a television programme. It brings families together on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday evenings to see what the next twist in the tale will be, and it forces us to talk to our colleagues, neighbours, and friends the day after to discuss the events of the previous night. As a nation, we become invested in strangers, or even so-called ‘B-List’ celebrities, as they embark on their quest of deception and trickery to come away with the ultimate prize.
The show is firmly etched into... British television culture
Perhaps the greatest indicator of The Traitors’ success lies not in the numbers it draws, but arguably in the cast it boasts. The newest version of Celebrity Traitors has seen A-listers such as Richard E. Grant, Romesh Ranganathan, and Maya Jama on board. This was after the likes of Clare Balding, Stephen Fry, and Tom Daley, who all featured in the inaugural iteration. The celebrities that The Traitors can attract are unrivalled. The newest season of Strictly Come Dancing boasts a hairstylist, a dog trainer, and the most recent winner of Love Island, while last year’s I’m A Celebrity was won by content creator Angry Ginge. These are hardly signs of shows that are thriving and uniting the nation. But The Traitors has a unique ability; its star-studded cast, of course, makes us more invested in the show, but the ordinary version can also produce new ‘celebrities’. The iconic Diane from season 2 became an internet sensation following her time on the show. The clip of her revealing her son on the show is firmly etched into The Traitors’, nay, British television culture’s, history books.
The evidence all points to The Traitors being the best show on television at the moment. You would be hard-pressed to find reasons to disagree, and we could fairly easily go one step further and declare it our national TV show. There is seldom a show that unites the nation and sparks such intense debate, and its ability to traverse society makes it a real staple of our national culture. Whether it’s Richard E. Grant accidentally revealing he’s a traitor or Charlotte’s fake Welsh accent, it is these moments that ensure we will continue to tune into the show for years to come. There is simply nothing we would rather watch.
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•Published: 14/10/26
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