“The Celebrity Traitors” has been renewed for a second season on BBC One and iPlayer.
The broadcaster confirmed on Monday that the show, which aired its Season 1 finale last week to 11 million viewers, will return with a new crop of stars next year. Companion show “The Celebrity Traitors: Uncloaked” will also return on BBC Sounds, BBC Two and iPlayer. “The Celebrity Traitors” is produced by Scotland’s Studio Lambert and hosted by Claudia Winkleman.
“The Celebrity Traitors” became a phenomenon from the start, with its first episode becoming the biggest single episode on TV so far this year with 14.8 million views over 28 days. The show is also now the biggest unscripted title across the entire U.K. market since 2021.
The news comes amid a new Economic Impact Report, revealing that “The Traitors” franchise across the U.K. and U.S. has generated a £21.8 million ($28.7 million) boost to Scotland’s economy since 2022.
“Studio Lambert have done an outstanding job as ‘The Celebrity Traitors’ has well and truly captivated the nation, becoming a bona fide highlight of the year bringing record numbers of people together to enjoy every twist and turn,” BBC head of entertainment Kalpna Patel-Knight said in a statement. “In 2026 the doors of the castle will be opened again to welcome celebrity players to the game to see who can charm, who can scheme and ultimately who can survive in series two which promises to be just as unmissable as the first. Plus with ‘Uncloaked’ returning and today’s news of the positive contribution ‘The Traitors’ brand has made to Scotland’s economy, there is plenty to celebrate.”
In Variety‘s review of the first season of “Celebrity Traitors,” Scott Bryan called the show the best reality TV of the year. “It is rare for the most popular show on television to be one of the best. It is rarer for that television show to become such a public spectacle that screenings of its finale fill out bars and clubs across the country. And it is even rarer for the tensions during those screenings, which you could cut with a knife, to be caused by the comedian Alan Carr,” he wrote. “Yet ‘The Celebrity Traitors U.K.’ did just that. The BBC’s first season of a celebrity version of the game — an elaborate, unpredictable internationally-franchised whodunnit — not only matched expectations. It exceeded them.”
