BBC Officially Confirms ‘The Traitors’ Has Been Renewed For Season 2

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In “news which will shock no one” today, the BBC has officially confirmed that hit series ‘The Traitors‘ will return for a 2nd Season on the BBC with Claudia Winkleman as host.

If you somehow missed the show when it landed in November, the series is a psychological reality competition where 22 strangers play a series of challenges in the ultimate game of detection, backstabbing and trust, in the hope of winning up to £120,000. The 22 consists of “Faithfuls” and an unknown and unidentified number of “Traitors”. The role of the Faithfuls is to discover the Traitors in the group and banish them all before the end of the game, whilst the Traitors aim is to stay undetected and escape being banished. If the Faithfuls successfully banish all the Traitors before the end of the game, the remaining Faithfuls are the winners and walk away with the prize money. If, however, there are any Traitors remaining at the end of the game, the remaining Traitor(s) will win and take it all. Each night, the Traitors can get together and “murder” one of the Faithful, thereby increasing their potential cut of the prize, and their odds at staying undetected.

The renewal doesn’t come as a huge shock, given ‘The Traitors’ has now had 34M views on BBC iPlayer, and is the biggest brand-new entertainment launch for the BBC in 2 years. It was also the biggest new series for young audiences across all BBC titles last year, and the highest rating new entertainment series on the BBC since at least 2017 for young audiences.

“I can’t wait to go back to the castle to watch people play the greatest game on television,” said host Claudia Winkleman. “I’m knitting a high funnel sweater immediately.”

The show has also been a huge critical hit, with The Guardian’s Rebecca Nicholson calling it “The Traitors is the most exquisite reality TV of the year,” and Rolling Stone’s Mark Beaumont saying “It’s far and away the most compelling and engrossing reality show of 2022, if not of all time.” Our very own film reviewer, Gray, was also utterly obsessed with the series.

“We were delighted so many viewers of BBC One and BBC iPlayer loved the first season,” said Stephen Lambert, CEO of Studio Lambert, which make the series. “They told us they enjoyed the drama and entertainment of watching our players judge each other, often leaping to false conclusions, but also forming alliances and real friendships. We’re excited to be making a second season with Claudia as together we build on the success of the first.”

‘The Traitors’ is produced by Studio Lambert Scotland for BBC One and BBC iPlayer. The second series of ‘The Traitors’ has been commissioned by Kalpna Patel-Knight, Head of Entertainment Commissioning for the BBC. The executive producers for Studio Lambert Scotland are Mike Cotton, Sarah Fay and Toni Ireland, and the production executive is Abi Lambrinos. The commissioning editors for the BBC are Neil McCallum and Syeda Irtizaali. ‘The Traitors’ format is devised and developed by IDTV in cooperation with the RTL Creative Unit. Studio Lambert is part of the All3Media group. All3Media International is distributing the format worldwide and will sell the tape for both UK and US versions.

With the show returning, the BBC are looking for applicants for season two. If you think you have what it takes to spot a Traitor (or be one…) you can apply here via BBC Take Part.

The first series of ‘The Traitors‘ and ‘The Traitors US‘ are available to watch on BBC iPlayer. If you want to keep track of these or any other show, you can add them via our Never Miss system, and you’ll be notified when it gets a UK premiere date.