Traitors’ faithful look to Ireland for a fresh batch of TV betrayals

The subterfuges and betrayals of another ratings-topping series of BBC’s The Traitors are over. But which programme will now take its place in the hearts of the nation?

The closest match will surely be The Traitors Ireland, which is to be screened air on BBC One early Saturdaymorning, after being shown on RTÉ One in Ireland last summer.

The series was filmed at Slane Castle, an 18th-century pile in County Meath, where the usual 24 contestants competed for a €50,000 (£43,000) prize pot overseen by the Derry Girls actor Siobhán McSweeney. Or we could simply switch to watching the American celebrity version, which is broadcast on the US streaming service Peacock.

When it comes to similar substitute shows, filming is under way on the second series of BBC One’s Destination X, the adventure challenge in which contestants are taken to a mystery European location devoid of phones and GPS and then have the task of working out where they are. Presented by Rob Brydon, it did well in its first outing last summer, even under the growing shadow cast by the success of The Traitors, with about 16 million viewers tuning in over its full season.

Brydon is clearly seen as a banker for audience appeal by the BBC whenever Traitors host Claudia Winkleman, now the corporation’s most valuable screen talent, is unavailable.

The slots vacated by The Traitors in the evening schedules will now be partly filled with the return of the popular BBC One panel show Would I Lie to You?, which Brydon also hosts, along with ITV’s gameshow The Floor.

New series of established shows such as the Caribbean whodunnit drama Death in Paradise and The Repair Shop are also being deployed to stop audiences draining away, and those who are missing Alan Carr, who triumphed before Christmas in The Celebrity Traitors, can catch him alongside Amanda Holden in Amanda & Alan’s Greek Job.

Netflix is also focused on the goal of creating weekly appointment viewing, the very broadcast model it has almost destroyed. It has just started a run of Star Search, a twice-weekly live interactive reboot of an 1980s American talent show format that helped launch the careers of Britney Spears and Beyoncé.

The glittering nine-episode Netflix season has a panel of judges including Buffy the Vampire Slayer actor Sarah Michelle Gellar, rapper and singer-songwriter Jelly Roll and model Chrissy Teigen, with a finale going out on 17 February. And, of course, Bridgerton, the raunchy Regency-era drama, returns on 29 January.

Netflix is also developing reality shows based on the vintage board games Cluedo and Monopoly, and around the Roald Dahl character of Willy Wonka, while American network NBC is attempting to turn Wordle, the New York Times’s addictive daily puzzle, into a gameshow.

But if The Traitors is the only thing that will hit the spot, homegrown “faithful” will not have too long to wait for another British series. It has been confirmed that the celebrity version will return this year, hosted by Winkleman once again at Ardross Castle in the Scottish Highlands.

Speculation about who is being recruited to compete is bubbling. Among those in the frame are the Inside No 9 co-creator and actor Steve Pemberton. The British performer has reportedly been talking to the show’s producers at the production company Studio Lambert ever since he publicly expressed his love for The Traitors when it launched four years ago.

Amanda Holden is reportedly being wooed, but is also committed to her role as a judge on Britain’s Got Talent and as a radio presenter.

Television host Alison Hammond is reportedly considering appearing in the series, as are actor Danny Dyer and Gavin & Stacey co-creator and star Ruth Jones.

Photograph by BBC/RTE/Kite Entertainment