What to Watch: The Traitors UK: Celebrity Edition

Clem and I started watching this show without the kids. Two episodes in, we looked at each other and said, they need to watch this. The show premiered in 2022 and is already airing it’s fourth season in the UK. The show is actually based on a Dutch show De Verraders that started it’s first season in 2021. The show, or game show, is a live action version of the game Mafia. Three members of the cast are assigned traitor status and it’s the job of the remaining cast (the Faithfuls) to root out the traitors before they are all murdered. We neck deep in this show and to say we are all in, is an understatement.

Now there is a lot of talking back at the TV in our house. I will not name names, but it’s not me. That said, this show has all of us wound up. Think of Amazing Race but on meth. The UK main series features a cast of regular citizens chosen play the game. The cast is sequestered in the countryside of England, and the show is shot at a castle. Now, I opted to watch the Celebrity season, which features some familiar faces in the UK and here in America. Stephen Fry (Gosford Park, Chariots of Fire) and Celia Imrie (Bridgette Jones movies, The Thursday Murder Club) are heavy hitters, along with the hilarious Alan Carr and Nick Mohammed (Ted Lasso) are the silent little devils. I got turned onto this show back in the late Fall when it first started airing. The mime of Carr and Mohammed kept popping up over and over in my instagram feed.

The show is addictive. We actually don’t watch the episodes in their entirety. The way the show is laid out is just too much a cliff hanger for me, so we actually start a episode about 10 minutes in, finish it and then start the next episode and watch it for the first 10 minutes. It works for us. I dare you to try not watching this show. It’s so addictive. We plan on watching the UK series eventually because it doesn’t look half bad. We will not watch the bastardized American version, which is also airing it’s fourth season as well.

The US version is pure garbage, the casting of the show is completely off the reality tv show casting couch. I watched one episode and turned it off right away. Even just watching one trailer or preview for an episode will leave you traumatized. Watching the American version is like living in the United States. Hate for no reason, and unsportsmanlike conduct for no reason. If you have to start with one of the many version of The Traitors, just watch the celebrity version. And the best news of jumping on the show in 2026, the second season for the celebrity version is already in production and set to be released later in 2026. You are going to love this show, Alan Carr is so good, you just can’t look away. You will find your people in this show, right in the first episode. Now, if you keep changing your people, then you are not going to be good at this game.

Last but not least, there is Claudia Winkleman who began her career in the early 90’s as an actor, and then moved to being TV presenter in the 2000’s. She was a co-host of the Strictly Ballroom dance competition for 15 years. Her uniqueness add to the dark and sinister side of this real life game of Maffia. Wikleman really sets the tone of the show and the game designers are simply brilliant. I think the flooding shed with the loose electirical challenge had all five of us anxious at bed time. Poor Lochlan got a crappy nights rest that night. The show is on NBC (aka Peacock) and I believe you can purchase it on Apple as well. Just happy it NBC and not CBS. That would be depressing.

The casting of the second season dropped back in November after the first series finale. From the curing songstress Lily Allen to a pletheroa of TV personalities in the UK. While I may not know them, the british know how to cast a show. Allen is joing by Matt Lucas (Great British Baking Show & Little Britain). My favorite surprise casting was Tomeka Empson who stared in the movie Beautiful Things back in the 90’s.