The BBC enjoyed fresh success with its second season of The Traitors, which drew its highest ever audience with its second season finale airing on Friday evening in the UK.
A reported peak of 6.9million tuned in to discover the winner of the ‘blink murder’-inspired reality TV show, set in a Scottish castle, where ‘faithfuls’ must try to guess the identity of the ‘traitors’ who are meanwhile trying to bump them off one by one. This figure was up by 2.2million on the first season a year ago.
After Friday evening’s tense finale, the show’s winner pocketed a prize of £95,000 and told the BBC: “My legs are shaking. I just won £95,000. I underestimated this massively, you come here and there’s 22 amazing people, and from the off I’ve been a traitor.”
They added: “I’ve had enough of being naughty and being bad, because that was next level. I didn’t know I could lie that well and keep it up.
“The first couple of days I was struggling, because you’re lying to people and building relationships out of a lie. It was just mad.”
The show is one of the BBC’s biggest hits in recent years, and has already been commissioned for a third series. The Traitors is produced by All3Media-backed Squid Game: The Challenge maker Studio Lambert and the U.S. version has just kicked off on Peacock.
A third series for the UK has already been commissioned.