Celebrity Traitors teaser released as launch date confirmed

The BBC has released a teaser for the hugely-anticipated Celebrity Traitors and also revealed the launch date for the show.

The multi-award-winning hit psychological game format will launch its first celebrity series with an extra-long first episode on Wednesday 8 October at 9pm on BBC One and iPlayer when fans will be treated to 70 minutes of treachery. The series will air two nights a week, on Wednesday and Thursday evenings at 9pm.

A brand new trail shows the star-studded celebrity cast seated around the iconic Traitors Roundtable for the first time.

Joining Claudia in the Scottish Highlands for The Celebrity Traitors are: Alan Carr, Cat Burns, Celia Imrie, Charlotte Church, Clare Balding, David Olusoga, Joe Marler, Joe Wilkinson, Jonathan Ross, Kate Garraway, Lucy Beaumont, Mark Bonnar, Nick Mohammed, Niko Omilana, Paloma Faith, Ruth Codd, Stephen Fry, Tameka Empson and Tom Daley.

The celebrities will play the ultimate game of detection, backstabbing and trust, in the hope of winning a cash prize up to £100,000 for a charity of their choice.

Celebrity Traitors will explore the “established relationships” of the famous cast, producers have said as they suggested tension will be created by leaning on the friendships that already exist.

The nine-part series will give contestants the chance to win a cash prize of up to £100,000 for a charity of their choice by trying to find the “traitors” or deceive their fellow stars.

Mike Cotton, creative director of unscripted shows at Studio Lambert and executive producer for The Traitors, was asked by online site The Playlist what lessons the team had learned working on the celebrity-focused series in the US.

He replied: “I think it is quite tricky.

“Without giving away details of the celebrity season, it is going to be slightly different, I would say, to the US celebrity version.

“I think one of the really interesting things that Sam (Rees Jones) touched on earlier is the established relationships that cast members have.

“If you watch the British version of The Traitors, none of the cast know each other. They all come in.

“Some of them have lied about who they are or hid that their son or their sisters are in the show as well.

“And what we’ve learned to do more in the US version is to embrace… people’s preconceived notions about one another, and embrace the different relationships that they have. And that’s 100% a learning that we are taking through for that.”

The Traitors US is hosted by Scottish actor Alan Cumming, and has had Sam Asghari, the estranged husband of Britney Spears, former House of Commons speaker John Bercow and Love Island winner Ekin-Su Culculoglu among contestants.

Producer Sam Rees Jones said the team has tried to “dial into previous relationships and dynamics”.

He said: “And that was a really important reason for that twist because it helped us deep dive into those dynamics straight away.

“Was (Survivor star) Carolyn (Wiger) going to swap out (former Survivor contestant) Tony (Vlachos) because they had a previous history with (Big Brother American stars) Danielle (Reyes) and Britney (Haynes)? We were able to explore it and expand on it in a storytelling way.”

Since the UK version began in 2022, millions of fans have watched The Traitors on the BBC and it has picked up a Bafta TV Award for best reality and constructed factual programme, and best entertainment performance for Winkleman.

The show follows contestants as they try to detect the traitors in the group while completing a series of challenges to win cash towards the prize pot.

If at the end of the series a traitor is among the finalists, the faithfuls lose out on the money and the traitor takes the full cash prize.

The third and most recent series saw project manager Jake Brown and former soldier Leanne Quigley share the prize pot of £94,600.

Ahead of the hotly anticipated fourth series coming in 2026, it is also confirmed that The Traitors will return for a fifth series and applications are now open.

Do you have what it takes to play the ultimate game of trust and deception? To apply to take part in The Traitors visit bbc.co.uk/takepart

For fans who want more, the official visualised companion podcast is returning, Celebrity Traitors: Uncloaked will be on BBC Two immediately after the main series and will also be available on BBC Sounds and BBC iPlayer.

Host Ed Gamble will be joined by the celebrities and players from previous series to analyse and react to developments in the castle.