Celebrity Traitors finale attracts record average audience

The Celebrity Traitors finale attracted its highest average overnight audience yet, with 11.2 million viewers tuning in for Friday’s dramatic conclusion.

The episode also recorded a peak audience of 11.6 million on BBC One, which is the highest of the series, alongside a 62.9% audience share, according to the BBC.

It became the most-watched episode of the celebrity spin-off to date, drawing a higher average audience than last year’s finale – which attracted 11.1 million viewers overnight.

The dramatic conclusion of the hit reality gameshow saw comedian Romesh Ranganathan and actor Sebastian Croft emerge victorious as faithfuls after the players successfully banished traitors Maya Jama and King Kenny.

The pair will split the £83,000 prize pot, with Heartstopper actor Croft donating his £41,500 share to the charity Choose Love, while Ranganathan said he would be giving his winnings to the Refugee Council.

The Celebrity Traitors has been a ratings winner for the broadcaster.

The second series premiered at the start of October and recorded the most-watched debut episode of any series of the programme in the UK, with an average of 8.9 million viewers and a peak of 9.1 million.

It followed on from the success of the first series of the celebrity spin-off, which debuted last autumn with an overnight audience of 6.1 million, according to the BBC.

Its nail-biting finale hit a peak of 15.4 million viewers – the biggest TV audience of 2025.

The civilian edition of The Traitors, which launched in 2022, is also highly successful and brought in an overnight audience of 6.4 million for its recent series premiere in January.

Its finale became the most-watched in the history of that version, with a peak audience of 9.6 million.

Stephen Lambert, chief executive of The Celebrity Traitors production company Studio Lambert, previously said he would like A-list stars such as Tom Cruise to feature in a future series.

“He would be great, and he loves Britain. We’re right up there in terms of our aspirations for the kind of person that might do the show,” he told The Times.

Lambert also joked that the Prince of Wales, who has spoken about his enthusiasm for the programme, would be “good” for a future star-studded line-up.

“Or a member of the royal family. A working member of the royal family,” he added.

Hosted by Claudia Winkleman, the show sees 21 celebrity contestants try to seek out the traitors among them who “kill off” players in the middle of the night.