BBC game show The Traitors has enjoyed a new audience record, with 6.4 million tuning in for the opening episode of the fourth series on New Year’s Day.
This was well-ahead of the 5.1m who watched the series three opener and even topped the hugely successful celebrity version which launched with 6.1m in a Wednesday 9pm slot in October, according to new figures published by Broadcast.
The 65-minute programme landed the highest ratings across the evening on New Year’s Day with 36.7% of viewers and well ahead of BBC1’s 2.4m (20.4%) benchmark.
Host Claudia Winkleman revealed a new twist, a secret fourth traitor whose identity has not even been revealed to viewers.
The secret traitor, who wears a red cloak instead of the usual green, has been given certain powers such as deciding which players the other traitors are allowed to kill. The new traitor is the only contestant who knows every other player’s status – including who the other three traitors are. This may prove controversial as the secret traitor’s ability to name the targets means he or she can protect themselves from the other traitors.
“I do not require middle management,” said traitor Hugo. “The whole point of being a traitor is having perfect information.”
The series is filmed at 19th century Ardross Castle in the Scottish Highlands, about 30 miles north of Inverness.
The channel retained its dominance of the evening’s viewing with its spy thriller The Night Manager pulling in 3.2m (25%), though this was half the 6.1m (26.2%) who watched its debut episode in February 2016. Unlike its predecessor, The Night Manager’s first two episodes were available on iPlayer, with new episodes dropping weekly.
Despite the lower audience, it was well ahead of ITV1’s second series of Red Eye which drew 1.3m (10%), under half of the 3.6m (28.5%) that saw the first episode in April 2024.
Channel 4 a festive special Gogglebox gathered 1m (8.7%), while 5 captured 660,00 (5.4%) with its feature on the late Irish comedian Dave Allen: In His Own Words.
Wildlife series continue to prove popular with David Attenborough’s Wild London at 6.30pm on BBC1 securing an overnight audience of 3.6m (25.2%), according to Barb data from overnights.tv.
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