With the regular series returning in the new year, could The Traitors fall victim to reality TV fatigue, asks

Forget faithfuls and traitors, the real winner of The Celebrity Traitors is the BBC. 

As series two reaches its dramatic climax tonight, the broadcaster has plenty to celebrate. The opening episode attracted 15.7m viewers in its first seven days, making it the UK’s most-watched TV programme of 2026 so far.

Arguably the show’s crowning achievement, however, is the way it’s created a world that people are desperate to be a part of. Friendship groups are organising watch parties in a way we’ve not seen since The X Factor’s heyday. Immersive experiences offer fans the chance to don the infamous cloak themselves. 

Whether it’s Richard E Grant ‘accidentally’ revealing himself as a Traitor or Ross Kemp’s paranoia inadvertently turning him into a never-ending meme manufacturer, conversation surrounding the season has reached fever pitch. And in doing so, fans are effectively doing the show’s marketing pro bono. 

It helps that the celebrity edition comes with ready-made fandoms, Leigh-Anne Pinnock and her “Mixers” a prime example. Each famous face has brought their own community to the castle. And what makes The Celebrity Traitors truly unique is that unlike many reality shows, it’s still capable of attracting genuinely big names. Even Hollywood is queuing up for a go, with Andrew Garfield and Tom Hiddleston publicly expressing interest in taking part. 

Getting these celebrities through the portcullis is a great way to win the immediate battle for attention. But as we’ve seen from The Traitors’ original format, viewers stay long after their favourite castle resident is banished (or worse). 

Let this be a lesson to any business trying to capitalise on the fame and fortune of established IPs and celebrated A-listers. Sure, these partnerships can get your foot in the door and drive initial engagement. Lasting loyalty, however, has to be earned with the quality of the product you actually deliver, as the brilliance of The Traitors format itself attests to.

Will Traitors fatigue set in?

With the regular series returning in the new year, could The Traitors fall victim to reality TV fatigue? Personally, I find that hard to believe. It’s not just that it has a catalogue of brand assets a mile long, from the ever-looming castle and cloaks to more nuanced items like perfume bottles. It’s that these parts all come together to form a distinctive world, arguably as recognisable and important as the contestants that play the game.

I’ve seen how powerful this can be firsthand. Back in 2015, I co-founded The Crystal Maze Live Experience, bringing a much-loved 1990s game show into the real world. We even got the original host, Richard O’Brien, involved in a promotional shoot!

A decade later, people are still turning up to collect crystals and tackle the challenges. Although many weren’t even born when the original show first aired, the experience has outgrown nostalgia, attracting new generations and given the franchise a commercial life of its own.

That’s the beauty of what we call the ‘Live Layer’: giving people the chance to step inside a story rather than simply watch it.

In a similar vein, The Traitors: Live Experience gives fans the opportunity to take their own seats at the Round Table and play the game themselves. It turns passionate viewership into ticket sales and could reach people who might not have watched the show in the first place.

But the real secret to The Traitors’ success isn’t simply its potential for spin-offs. It’s that everyone can picture themselves in the castle. More than that, we’re all convinced we’d be rather good at it. We know who we’d trust, who we’d banish and how we’d outsmart the Traitors.

Business leaders can learn from this want to get involved, giving people a role to play in their offerings, and by extension giving them a reason to come back. Because, at the end of the day, the most important faithfuls aren’t just loyal customers, they’re the ones who recruit others. 

Dean Rodgers is experiential director at Studio Secret Cinema