‘Universal appeal’: Celebrity Traitors producer reveals secrets to its success

For the celebrities chosen as traitors in the BBC’s juggernaut reality show, the task is simple – kill off fellow contestants without getting caught.Yet with the new series of Celebrity Traitors once again attracting huge audiences, its UK producers are delighting in one of the show’s more wholesome qualities – its popularity is staving off the death of television’s ability to unite the nation.“It’s very difficult to get people to watch programmes, and there is a huge joy coming up with something that a very large amount of people watch,” Stephen Lambert, head of the Celebrity Traitors producer Studio Lambert, told the Radio Times.“The show has universal appeal … It has established itself as ‘appointment-to-view TV’,” he added.Despite its appeal, however, Lambert may still struggle to attract the man he revealed to be his dream contestant: Tom Cruise.More than 10 million people have tuned in to watch some episodes, well in excess of half the viewers watching TV during the show’s time slot. It is also pulling younger viewers away from other devices and on to the sofa, with 1.6 million people aged between 16 and 34 tuning in for this series’ premiere.‘We get that wonderful extra sneaky peak behind the facade of celebrity’. Photograph: Euan Cherry/BBC/Studio LambertIn doing so, it has bucked a long-running trend that has seen mass TV audiences become increasingly rare. The arrival of streamers, digital platforms and smartphones have ensured such viewing figures have become the preserve of the Olympics, England World Cup matches and the odd breakthrough hit.The success of The Traitors has inevitably spawned similar formats based on deceit and questionable detective skills, as producers attempt to replicate its allure. Lambert said that whether it was the celebrity edition or the regular series of The Traitors, the secret to its success came down to two words: “Dramatic irony.”“It’s the engine of The Traitors,” he said. “It’s about the pleasure that we know more than the protagonists – we know who is lying. And it’s fun to try and watch people work out who the liars are.”When it comes to the celebrity edition, he said viewers delighted in seeing famous faces uncomfortable as they “have so little control” over events. “It’s such an immersive game that people get caught up in it, and show how they really are,” he said.Lambert confirmed that casting for Celebrity Traitors was not difficult because its popularity meant that the names who agreed to go into the traitors’ castle were also fans. Producers have previously noted the show does not face the usual challenges of attracting names to formats that ask them to eat bugs or train for weeks on end.Not only would Cruise be a tough man to pin down, Lambert also said securing sports stars continues to be a perennial problem for casting directors. Sports men and women not only have gruelling schedules, but their media activities are guarded closely by personal agents and their clubs.‘The cliffhangers are so brilliantly executed’. Photograph: BBC/Studio Lambert/Euan Cherry/PAWhen asked about dream contestants, Lambert said: “Tom Cruise, maybe? And we would like to have a big sports star. But if they are an active one, they have commitments.”Shows similar in style to The Traitors have been attempted, such as Channel 4’s The Inheritance or ITV’s The Neighbourhood, though both networks and production companies usually bridle at any suggestion that their latest reality format amounts to their new spin on The Traitors.Even the most experienced TV insiders freely admit that productions that were fun to make and have found audiences overseas come with no guarantee of success.“If anyone tells you what the secret is, they are not in full command of reality,” said Jonathan Glazier, a former head of BBC light entertainment. “Don’t you think if we knew, every show would be a Traitors?“It’s just a joy to sit back and marvel at the duplicity and wonder why the faithful can’t see the traitors for who they are! That said, the cliffhangers are so brilliantly executed … and with the celeb version we get that wonderful extra sneaky peak behind the facade of celebrity.“It’s a joy to watch and any team that tries to imitate that kind of simplistic perfection is going to come a cropper.”