User reviews

Ordinary people compete for the change to win £120,000.

Full of twists and turns, this has been the most compulsive gameshow on the box for a very long time.

I love the originality of it, it's absolutely compulsive viewing, I didn't like the look of it initially, but I ended up binge watching it, it's one of those shows that you can't help but get drawn into.

So some of the challenges are a little irritating, and some of the acting is a little bit dodgy at times, but those are minor irritations, it's been the first show myself and family have all sat down to watch together for quite some time.

Claudia is definitely one of the best presenters out there, and she's marvellous and understated at the same time.

Love it, 9/10.

One of my FAVORITE game shows - EVER!!!

SO addictive, in fact, that I had to look for more, and BINGE-watched (at the expense of being late for work the following morning), not ONLY the U. S version, but the UK and Australian versions.

It is SO good, that if I understood or spoke Danish, or if it had subtitles (and I knew where to stream it), I would immediately watch the original as well.

I was about to add that if you enjoy game shows, this is a DO NOT MISS show, BUT that falls short. This is not only a series where players compete for money. It's a whodunnit, a thriller, a mystery, a drama, a comedy ... it is excellent and addictive.

Launched in the winter of 2022 to rather disappointing ratings, I was alerted to 'The Traitors' by how many viewers were describing it with words like 'addictive' and 'absorbing'. After viewing the first episode, it was obvious that the show would be a sure fire massive hit. The series has continued to be startlingly fascinating, entertaining viewing and unquestionably my favourite newly launched show of the year.

On the face of it, the premise sounds relatively straightforward. Twenty two strangers perform tasks together to earn a prize fund of up to £120,000. However, covertly hidden amongst the twenty two are the Traitors, who strategically 'murder' the other contestants (Faithfuls). The Faithfuls' job is to root out the Traitors and remove them from the game. Eventually any remaining players take home the prize kitty.

Despite its apparent simplicity, the show has produced some of the most compelling TV exchanges and moments one could wish to see. Psychologists could surely hold conferences studying the group dynamics. It shows how clever manipulation can produce a full on herd, 'Lord of the Flies' mentality as innocent Faithfuls are suddenly turned on and evicted without a shred of evidence against them. The innocent victims become understandably distraught leading to high octane and intense scenes at the 'round table', where each player explains who they wish to get rid of, and why. We are also privy to the machinations of the Traitors.

The devious producers also regularly introduce ingenious twists to keep the viewing guessing, and to ratchet up the tension even more. Compliments also go to the researchers, who cast the 2022 contestants. Refreshingly, the competitors encompass a broad spectrum of ages, temperament and social backgrounds. Many of the contestants view themselves as mind control experts or being able to spot liars. The fact that they have been so inept at either, has given the viewer great schadenfreude.

Claudia Winkleman has played the role of the string pulling games controller with obvious relish. One of British TV's safest pair of hands, she has performed her part with consummate skill.

Add in high production values, the picturesque and atmospheric Scottish castle location and clever use of incidental music, and you have an outstanding piece of television. The show loses one mark, because the actual tasks to raise the prize fund, are far less compelling. However, they do allow the viewer some respite from the sheer intensity of the rest of the each episode.

It's so rare that a new formula bursts on to the TV scene with such an impact. Congratulations to all involved and roll on the next series, when I suspect things may become even more thrilling!

My boss kept asking why I wasn't watching this and insisted I get onto it so we could talk about it in our work catch ups.

I resisted, because I thought reality tv competitions had been done to death and so why would I bother?

I started watching on Saturday afternoon (yesterday) because I thought I'd give it a go and see what the fuss was about.

I watched eight episodes one after the other, even though it was nuts and I couldn't understand for one minute the reasoning behind anyone's theories!

I've watched another episode this afternoon and am gutted I have to wait until Tuesday for the next one!

It's more addictive than nicotine.

Everyone cries. Nothing makes sense.

It's brilliant.

This is reality television with a twist! Most reality shows choose extreme personalities, pit them against each other in mild challenges, surfacing drama from the close proximity of big egos. The Traitors picks relatively normal people and pits them against each other in brutal fashion. The ensuing drama is a result of natural paranoia!

I love this show because it feels like a social experiment. It's a real game of cat and mouse, with the traitors lying and scheming in an effort to stay undetected, and the faithfuls clutching as straws as they try to weed out the traitors. It's even more compelling that we, as the audience, know who the traitors are from the beginning.

When the show first starts, most contestants are quite polite, if a little cautious. No one is willing to throw any serious shade on the credibility of their fellows. But as the show goes on, the tension builds, and all sorts of crazy starts to happen. Great tv!

What a show. Love it. Full of action and psychological play The worst bit wierdly is missions for the money which to me has no impact at all.

But the show is immense and exciting and fun.

Claudia is a perfect host for this show with her whacky personality I never watch one show after another as got a short attention span so need variety.

But i watched 3 in a row and then 2 today one catch up and one live.

One of best of shows ive seen for a while.

Love the tension between competitors as not knowing who is a faithful and a traitor.

Funny how each night think oh they will keep off this person and then a total different person chosen showing the insecurities this game is bringing up to people in game.

But makes a damn good show.

Love it a defo 10.

The Traitors was something I watched out of curiosity. When I asked my partner if they wanted to watch they flat out said no but would do as I was interested.

10 minutes into the first episode my partner was more infatuated than me.

Every episode had plot twists, amazing challenges and nail biting endings always leave us satisfied but in suspense of what was going to happen next.. and the ending? Oh my god.. what an ending..

I implore anyone who reads this to give it a watch. It's the best thing all year.

Finally I didn't expect such a platform to be on the BBC.. all those streaming providers really missed out.

Cannot wait for season 2!!!

I only watched this programme to start with as I love Claudia Winkleman! I bet she had a whale of a time making it and inflicting/encouraging such cruelty! Ha ha... I am not usually a big fan of reality shows but this sounded refreshingly different. I was totally hooked from the very first one and couldn't miss a single episode! I love everything about it... the tasks, the scary round table, the armoury, and the conspiring followed by the murders! So many twists and turns too... A very good selection of totally different characters made it compulsive viewing... interesting to see how they change towards each other throughout the days!... they had better make a series 2!!

Just an amazing emotional experiment into human behaviour. Loved every single second of this. By the end of the series I felt like I personally knew all of the remaining contestants. I hated the 4 day gap over the weekend waiting for the next set of episodes. I thought the challenges were really high quality. It can't be easy to set physical challenges that are appropriate for such a diverse set of contestants, but somehow the BBC have done it. Just a phenomenal pre-Christmas viewing experience. I really hope this gets renewed for a second serious. Claudia Winkelman was great. Clearly moved by the final results.

Probably the best reality show since Big Brother (when it was good).

22 people are pitted against each other. Three are traitors and the others are faithfuls. The faithfuls have to try and vote out the traitors while the traitors try to remain undetected. At the end of the show if all the traitors are voted out then the faithfuls split the prize pool between themselves. If just one traitor is left at the end then they take all the money for their self.

It's a bit like watching a murder mystery unfold. The viewer know who the traitors are so they can watch them plot, backstab and 'murder' whilst forming bonds and friendships.

I didn't expect to enjoy this programme, im not much for reality TV but this had me gripped early on. The final episode was fantastic to watch. You really find yourself drawn in and hope that whoever you want to win manages it.

If this sounds like the kind of thing you like watching then give it a go. I don't think many people will be disappointed.

As a family we're not big reality tv fans. And as a basically decent human being I don't enjoy watching 'social experiments' which aim to pit people against each other and cause hurt and upset, which is precisely what this show does.

Odd then that I'm quite as glued to it as I am. Perhaps because it's all so overwrought and the storms are all very much in little teacups, with all the players guaranteed to be out of the castle in a few days and back to their humdrum lives. After all, you can win as much money on Michael McIntyre's The Wheel and that can be cruelly random at times - it's not like there's a million pounds at stake or anything.

So maybe that's the magic. It's sick, it's twisted, it has a cast of fairly recognisable 'normal' but flawed personalities, and the twists are well thought out and well executed. Claudia is enjoying what little she has to do and doesn't seem to mind the psychological trauma her victims are going through. Slightly odd perhaps that all of us in this house are rooting for the traitors rather than the faithful, although maybe that's the aim?

Anyway, I feel guilty watching these people crying and shouting at each other, but it's a little too easy to enjoy it I'm afraid. Mea culpa.

There's a bunch of problems I had with this show.

The first being that the contestants are acting extremely fake. Possibly due to encouragement of the production team to make for better tv. To me it was off-putting. These are people who met each other a day ago, and acting like the world is ending when a person they met minutes ago gets sent away.

The deck is extremely stacked against the non-traitors (in the beginning). This show is sort of an offshoot of the mafia game. The thing is with the mafia game you'd normally see it played with people who know each other, so when somebody becomes a mafia and acts differently because of it. They can sort of tell.

Here you are playing with complete strangers, and after 3 episodes they basically have to guess based on absolutely nothing at all who the 'traitors' are. So of course they are sending the wrong people off.

So the traitors don't only get to 'kill' somebody off, they ALSO have the benefit of the others sending the wrong people away every episode. Because they are literally deciding who to vote for by putting their finger in their mouth and then seeing from where the wind blows.

And of course every time a wrong person gets sent off, they bawl and cry and "oh nooooossss". Again, fake.

Possibly the biggest problem: There are no likeable characters. Usually in game shows like this you want to root for somebody to end up winning and that will keep you watching.

After 3 episodes I wished they would all lose.

This is an amazing game show. This should be shown at school, jobs, to everyone. It's a perfect example of herd mentality, making snap judgments, the difference between facts and opinions, evidence and circumstance. It's ridiculous watching some of these people and how awful they are, how quick they are to jump on someone based off of one comment or one action. I think anyone who has lived, gone to high school, or work (which often times is an extension of high school behaviors) will understand this and appreciate it. We've all been victims of he said she said herd mentality.

Watching people taking this game personally - judging people for playing a literal role they were given in a game show is INSANE. It's just a perfect psychological and social study of human behavior.

We also enjoy the fact that there is no back story, no build up of people outside the show, no sex and nudity. Alan Cummings Traitors was the best in our opinion. No back story, minimal cussing, minimal interference of the game by the host. He also pulled off every insanely wonderful outfit, and delivered his lines perfectly. No cheese. He embraced it and killed it. Australia version did have too much of the back story and build up of people. This one had a lot of swearing, which we weren't fans of. The shows are all fairly clean and watchable with family and young children. Again, minus the swearing. This version was not watchable by young children.

The other complaint we have of this one is that, like the Australia version, the host gets to talking too much. Really noticeable in the second season. Trying to sway all of the faithfuls against the traitors even more so than they naturally are. They make it seem like the entire reason for the show is to see the faithfuls win, throwing all of their support behind them. They sell the traitors short, plant seeds, tell them they are all laughing at them, pit them against each other, and refuse to say how great the traitors are actually doing. It's literally two teams, one very outnumbered, against each other. Let the best team win and maybe keep the your opinion to themselves, step back and just be the host. Not the puppet master.

Once you watch one you will want to watch all of them. Prepare to get less sleep. It's always a cliffhanger ending and you will find yourself saying just one more.

Inventive and beautifully produced, directed, and photographed.

Claudia Winkelman is the perfect Host, with an occasional aside of humorous self-awareness. The contestants all participate flawlessly and make the whole thing work. Suspense is constant, right up to the last few minutes. At least in Season 1; I'm not yet done with Season 2.

As it appears to be unpredictable for not only the players but the producers, who couldn't know how it would all turn out but seem to have thought of everything.

The amount of planning, props, and other production work is just phenomenal. Not a detail missed. All aided by the gorgeous castle, grounds, and landscape.

With what must be a huge but nicely invisible crew making it all go. And the post-filming editing is masterful, adding everywhere to the intended atmosphere.

I have only a couple of nits. The overlaid music is too much, and the player "Oh my god" reactions often overdone. That's the only sign of over-coaching.

I'm very glad to read that there will be a third season. It must be very expensive to produce.

Rating it a 9 because it is well over 8.

I rarely rate reality shows on here, coz I'm normally not a big fan, but holy moly, this took me by surprise.

This is fresh, this is shockingly exhilarating, this is 21st century TV, and actually NOT in a dumb or numbing way. It's very intelligent, well produced and utterly engaging.

Hailing from the Netherlands, now in the UK, 'The Traitors' is just a genius concept, mind-boggling, intense, superbly creative and just WOW!!! Not for the fainthearted for sure, because you delve so deep into the human psyche, it's just otherworldly, and utterly gripping.

I spare you the details on the format, because they have been covered on the internet and in other reviews, but the twists and turns, the way the viewers become emotionally invested, the shocking revelations and everything that comes with it, makes this show a recipe for success.

Claudia Winkleman is superb as host and foreboding narrator, it's completely different territory for her to "Strictly" - but I think she does a fabulous job.

Watching the show, even us, the viewers start to forget that it's 'just a game' ever so often, because the show's format and production is just so crazily out there.

And did I mention it's shot in the most beautiful Scottish castle with the most breathtaking surroundings - which almost act like a juxtaposition to the sometimes quite grim reality of the show?

I have to give this a 10 out of 10, because I have been hooked from the get-go.

I found this to be one of the best shows of recent years, genuinely gripping. To me it's similar to the likes of Golden Balls with Jasper Carrott. It's all about having a poker face, steady nerves and taking chances.

I really looked forward to the next episode. It only gets better each time but I was hooked from the start. Its like a strategy board game come to life. I thoroughly enjoyed it. The quirky castle setting also added to the intrigue. Claudia did a good job hosting because she's a little dark and mysterious herself.

Please make another series. Simply brilliant. And I never usually bother reviewing anything.

Excellent show, I understand a second series is highly likely if you can believe what is being said in the press

Claudia Winkleman is perfectly cast as presenter with her rather gothic appearance, it's difficult I think to come up with anyone else who could do it as well.

Apparently the idea of the show was originally Dutch, I can see certain similarities between this and "I'm a celebrity let me out of here" but this has more twists and turns, l look forward to another series so here's hoping it will materialise. I wonder if it may lead to long term resentments amount the players however although I hope not. I can see this show being around annually for some time.

Deception, betrayal, treachery: this reality TV programme has it all. The mental madness inside both the players and the viewers is exilerating. You as a observer are constantly on the edge of your seat wondering weather the players have made the right decision, rooting for the traitors and at the same time hoping the faithful banish correctly.

This programme puts a group of random people who have never met (who by the end of it all are friends for life) together to compete in challenges and against each other to win up to £120k, either as the traitors, to deceive, manipulate and betray or as the faithful, to come together and pinpoint the few traitors among them, who as an observer you know who are.

Each day there is the same routine - or at least that's what the faithful think - the start with breakfast and shortly after they participate in their daily challenge where the work together often in grewsome conditions to win a small fraction of the prize fund which at the end is split between the faithfuls, or if there is even just one traitor remaining, then they take it all. After their challenge they return to the castle (where they all stay during the day) and in the afternoon, the all go to the Round Table where the players discuss and then banish a player who they believe is a traitor. After the Round Table when the clock hits 12 the all leave the castle, where later on the traitors return and decide who to kill.

This programme is cast so well and set perfectly with all the twists and turns that make you want to continue watching. The only reason I am rating this a 9 is because I believe it is too scripted for Claudia's personality; it is scripted to the point where you no longer see her fun and loving personality and she is just speaking from her lines.

Aside from that, I loved watching every single episode of this excruciatingly brilliant programme that left me dieing to watch the next episode the moment the current episode finished. I highly recommend watching it and I hope they bring out a second series next year.

I have literally just binge watched the whole 12 episodes in a day and a half! There NEEDS to be a 2nd series. I found this show on a whim on bbc I player and I can not even express how happy I am to have found this! From the first 10 minutes of the first episode, I knew that this was going to be a brilliant show. I was completely gripped and enticed the whole way through. This is going to be the best show on telly if there is a second series, and let me tell you, I will 100% be watching it. Best tv show I have ever watched!! It has to be a 10/10 couldn't have wrote it better!!!! Adore this show.

As the interaction between the 'players' is the most interesting part of the game the game element where cash is earned doesn't really gel (I often just fast forward that bit) I think the producers just thought they had to have something interesting/exciting/outdoors cos it's Scotland.

The result is that full length it's too long and drags... I think they could have left out the games element completely and upped the traitors twists and turns , making for a much tighter show... the producers probably didn't have to offer cash.. the free board and lodging would attract the players.

Having said that it's still an interesting take on the reality show although I wonder if the participants have to sign a binding contract that they promise not to band together and collectively murder Winkerman in her sleep...

This new BBC reality TV show has been a big success with viewers for those who like that kind of thing. Perhaps cashing in on the current television and cinema fads for whodunits, it takes nearly two dozen members of the public, although in truth a fair number of them seem to be performers of some type, at least two are actors, another is a comedian, to a remote, luxurious Scottish castle along with gloomy presenter Claudia Winkleman.

There they play a game which can only be described as a cross between the boardgame "Cluedo" and TV shows "The Weakest Link", "The Apprentice" "Big Brother" and even "I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here" with three of their number co-opted to secretly "murder" one of the remaining group every night, while the group itself also gets to "banish" one of their number who they think is a traitor, in both these ways reducing their number until presumably one person is left to take the prize pot, which has been built up by the group's completing various bush-tucker type tasks as they go.

With a group which must tick every diverse box going, the show uses atmospheric lighting and doomy music to build up cliffhangers at the end of every episode to keep the viewers hooked for the next one.

I can see why the show appeals to people but I'm afraid I found the almost serial-weeping at the drop of a hat by practically all the participants extremely off-putting, with all of them seemingly angling for a post-"Traitors" career in the media. I also absolutely hate the awful supposedly ghostly versions of themed popular songs which form the background music to events.

My wife however, like many, is absolutely hooked on it and I'm watching it with her, through my fingers, if I'm being honest, right up to the bitter end. For me there isn't one person in the group I'd ever want to meet in person and that includes Miss Winkleman and her irritating fringe-cut. Is it just me too or did no-one else find the casual use of the word "murder" to be mildly offensive too? What's wrong with "evict"?

I get that the whole idea of reality shows appears to be to allow so-called ordinary, average individuals to over-project what they think are their wonderful personalities the second a TV camera is trained on them. To see and hear them break down in tears over what is basically a silly TV game show, with some of them calling it the hardest thing they've ever done, rather makes me think they should collectively go out and try to get a life.

And that's the honest 100% truth!

This programme is one of the best I have ever seen. It leaves me on the edge of my seat after every episode. If you have not watched this I highly recommend it. The host, Claudia Winkleman, is amazing at creating dramatic tension. The twists and turns are incredible. They have big characters and personalities who are relatable. If you like shows such as Big Brother or Survivor you will love The Traitors. The only problem is that it is not on every night, every day of the year. It also comes with American, Australian and New Zealand versions. So the question is are you Faithful or are you a Traitor?

From the surprise twist in the first 15minutes to the twists and turns as the show goes on....this is premium competition reality TV.

I'm only on Series 1 Episode 5, and as such my final rating will be reserved until the final episode, but so far it's been tense and I'm not sure how much of the show is manipulated by the producers, which I'm sure most of these types of shows are, but it's is almost like a soap opera. Thie only thing that would make this show better, would be if Ant and Dec joined Claudia as host.... Claudia is great, but her combined with Ant and Dec would be a dynamite team for off the cuff remarks and prime time viewing.

UPDATE - So the rest of the series did hold up to the start....whilst the last couple of episodes were slightly less tense than the earlier episodes, still a fantastic show...9.5/10.

I'm halfway through the 2nd series and after a slow start the producers have really upped their games...I'm now super excited to finish and to start series 3.