You know that moment on Christmas Day when your well-intentioned post-dinner game of Monopoly has been derailed by one family member, slightly slurring their words, accusing the rest of you of cheating? The Traitors, BBC One’s new reality competition series hosted by Claudia Winkleman, is the TV version of that. Deception, lying and trickery are key to this new format, a high-budget reinvention of party games like Werewolf or Mafia, mixed with the grand castle setting of Cluedo.
As with any new board game, the show opens with a complicated set of rules. A group of 22 complete strangers from across the UK have been brought together to compete for a cash prize of “up to £120,000” (whatever that means). But among them will lurk the “traitors”, contestants who every night will attempt to “murder” members of the group without being caught. If any traitors remain in the game at the end, they will receive the entire prize pot. If not, it goes to the other contestants – known as “faithfuls” – who are left. Still with me?
