Comedian Romesh Ranganathan and actor Sebastian Croft emerged victorious as faithfuls in the Celebrity Traitors finale after banishing final traitors Maya Jama and King Kenny, pulling in a record overnight audience for BBC One, Deadline reported.
The Claudia Winkleman-fronted BBC hit surpassed last year’s previous high of 11 million overnight viewers for its finale. Across its nine-episode run, the second season averaged 9.7 million overnight viewers, jumping significantly from Season 1’s 7.5 million average. Studio Lambert produces the format for BBC One and iPlayer, with All3Media International handling global sales.
The Final Record Breakers
- The 80-minute finale peaked at 11.6 million viewers on BBC One, capturing a commanding 62.9% audience share.
- Winners Romesh Ranganathan and Sebastian Croft split an £83,000 prize pot, donating their shares to the Refugee Council and Choose Love, respectively.
- Catch-up and streaming figures continue to surge, with the first four episodes averaging a staggering seven-day audience of 15.2 million.
High-Risk Gambles and Round Table Betrayals
The dramatic conclusion to Season 2 of The Celebrity Traitors hinged on a series of aggressive late-game maneuvers. Following the elimination of former Little Mix star Leigh-Anne Pinnock at the fire pit, the remaining players forced a second round of banishments. The Independent reported that YouTuber King Kenny admitted to turning against fellow traitor Maya Jama in a desperate move to protect his own standing in the castle. Kenny stated he felt the traitors were obvious in the room and that publicly defending Jama would have immediately exposed him.
Get. In. There!The Celebrity Traitors series 2 launch episode has already surpassed the record breaking 28-day figure for the series 1 opener (after just 7 days) making it the biggest Traitors launch yet.More ➡️ https://t.co/eVmAiWdlgQ pic.twitter.com/YK6j6qDLJv
After ousting Jama and orchestrating a tie between singer James Blunt and Kenny, actor Sebastian Croft persuaded Ranganathan to join him in banishing the YouTube creator. Blunt had earlier insisted Ranganathan was entirely wrong in accusing him. Kenny expressed surprise at Croft’s betrayal after previously expressing mutual trust, noting that the endgame ultimately boils down to microscopic degrees of trust.
Format Momentum Across the BBC Landscape
The runaway success of the celebrity spin-off highlights the enduring strength of the Dutch format, originally created by IDTV in cooperation with RTL Creative Unit. The current season bowed out with figures that will almost certainly secure its spot as the biggest UK television audience of the year outside of the FIFA World Cup. This follows a rocky start to the celebrity run that included actor Richard E. Grant unmasking himself as a traitor early in the game, an early hurdle that failed to dent the show’s massive momentum.
The civilian edition of The Traitors, which launched on the BBC in 2022, laid the groundwork for this phenomenon, pulling in an overnight audience of 6.4 million for its recent January season premiere and hitting a peak of 9.6 million for its own finale. Meanwhile, the celebrity iteration continues to outpace expectations, fueled by heavy iPlayer streaming requests that regularly pile on more than 5 million viewers over a seven-day window.
