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New year, new killing spree. This is the third time the BBC has dropped a new season of The Traitors on or close to 1 January, enshrining a great new British tradition of easing into the new year with a month-long “psychological game of deception” – and, after a slow-burn start to the first season back in 2022, audiences have now learned to bay for fresh blood at Claudia Winkleman’s bell.
This fourth “civilian” season comes just a month after The Celebrity Traitors finale, which drew a record 15m viewers, sent some of its contestants’ profiles skyrocketing (and called others into question – Nick, what happened?) and is still generating headlines from the retrospective play-by-play.
By this point, The Traitors is about as close as we come to appointment viewing in the streaming age, singlehandedly convincing audiences to stump up for TV licences. Yet, after the barnstorming success of The Celebrity Traitors – and that jaw-dropping finale, which saw Alan Carr, the best-worst Traitor ever, somehow seize victory from his loyal faithfuls – even diehards fans might well be asking themselves: how can this new season top that?
By changing the game, of course. Episode one makes clear almost from the jump – after a typically camp opening sequence showing Winkleman in a 4x4, shadowed by an owl – that in this season, not even her appointed traitors can expect to have total control. “Just when they think they know how to play …” Winkleman murmurs, brushing a telltale red cloak.
Last year the show sought to keep contestants on their toes by having them boot three of their own from the train, before they had even reached the castle. This year everyone makes it to The Traitors HQ, with introductions made along the way. With 22 starting players, the show does a good job of suggesting who we need to pay attention to. There’s 62-year-old Fiona from Swansea – in the mould of season one’s Amanda, dialling up the dither to evade suspicion. Thirty-something Scot Stephen – who plans to draw on “having to be different people”, growing up queer on the isolated Isle of Lewis. Cool, calm and collected comms head Rachel – who once successfully breached security, pretending to be the Irish president’s daughter, and has been manifesting Winkleman’s tap on her shoulder.
They skew older than last year’s crop and, mercifully, less jittery. Some, such as crime writer Harriet, 52, and Amanda, 57, a retired police detective, have already resolved to conceal their professions. Others – such as Hugo, a barrister and self-described “psychopathic teddy bear”, and 34-year-old accounts guy Sam, poised to be this season’s love-to-hate player – have brought nothing but brazen confidence. Meanwhile, in a series first, there’s a shock reunion outside the castle doors between nursery teacher Netty, 42, and personal trainer Ross, 37 (lapsed acquaintances), which promises a new dynamic to play with.
Strikingly, all of them want to play as traitors, shocking even Claudia with their bloodlust. It suggests a slight change in tack with casting, prioritising those with a sheer love of the game. Last year’s contestants, selected by “the pub test”, quickly turned on each other like rats in a cage, veering between the fight-or-fawn response at the round tables in a way that was certainly not strategically productive, and occasionally unpleasant to watch. No doubt the pressure will get to this lot, too, but they at least seem prepared.
The hype around The Traitors is also acknowledged in the episode, with the contestants shown to be thrilled by the famous castle and “queen Claudia”, suggesting a slightly more meta production. (Winkleman congratulates them on arrival: “You made it off the train – that doesn’t always happen.”) But, the audience has already been let in on the coming twist: on top of the traitors selected by Winkleman at the first round table, there’s now a “Secret Traitor” who knows their identities, nominates who they may kill and is the only player to have total oversight of the game. Not even those watching at home know who, among the supposed faithfuls, is beneath that scarlet cloak.
It’s an audacious decision, shaking up the format at the series’ peak, but one that could stymie The Traitors’ emergent flaw, where only the most gullible faithfuls have a chance of making it to the end. Indeed, the impact on gameplay is seismic, and immediate. Winkleman wastes no time in selecting her traitors, but the triumph of her chosen three is short-lived once they learn they’ll have to murder to order. (“I do not require middle management,” grumbles one.) Their stricken expressions as they realise that their strategies have been totally upended are immensely satisfying to watch and promise great telly ahead.
The first challenge, too, delivers spectacle with 100 coffins suspended across a loch. Some contain cash, and must be towed to shore – but there’s another twist, forcing the players to reveal their suspicions about each other on the fly and make split-second decisions about who to shield from banishment. When a secret blood tie between faithfuls is revealed near the episode’s end, you’re left to anticipate what gems the producers must be holding back. (The season two Ross and Diane bombshell was delayed until episode three.)
Having grown the series’ following with The Celebrity Traitors, the BBC could easily have rolled out another civilian season using past templates and felt sure of a record-breaking audience. Instead, they’ve upped the ante and made the format even twistier. Episode one, with its rapid, punchy reveals, leaves us and the players with plenty of threads to pull on – and exudes the producers’ confidence in the coming payoff.
