Are you ready for The Traitors round 2?
Earlier this week, it was revealed that The Traitors would return for a second season in the New Year, launching on 3 January and therefore airing a little over a year after the first one received widespread praise from critics and viewers alike.
I don't know about you, but I was totally encaptured by it and was swiftly and utterly invested in the goings on at the Scottish castle - and now I'm counting down the days for season two. But, with the hype sky-high for the show, could it ever recapture the magic of season one?
No one quite knew what to expect when the show aired in 2022. With Claudia Winkleman giving some authority to the mystery new gameshow, I watched with curiosity only to be sucked into the show’s simple yet brilliant premise: three contestants are traitors, and the others are 'Faithful'. The viewer knows who is who, but the cast doesn’t. However, they have to vote for someone as a 'traitor' every night. If a traitor makes it to the end, they win. If the Faithfuls find them in time, they win.
The delicious drama, paranoia and accusations sparked, as a result, led The Traitors to be the show that everyone was talking about - but with season two announced and all the secrets of the show already revealed by the first instalment, will season two measure up to viewers’ lofty expectations?
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After all, we know the premise very well now- so unless there are some surprises in store, there won’t be anything new. Among things that will have to change is the order in which the traitors are sent into the breakfast room in the morning, since any savvy player who watched season one will know that the final person to walk through will be a faithful, then there are the vaguely pointless games that the contestants play to earn their prize money that give us all time to catch up on Twitter - with a lukewarm reception, will they be bringing the prize raising games back?
It wouldn’t be the first time that shows that were once much-talked-about hits have since waned as viewer interests have changed, with Love Island being the perfect example.
Whether it’s down to the ITV show's predilection to pick 'influencer' contestants, overflowing the market by introducing two seasons a year instead of one, or people just opting to watch a different romance show (both Married at First Sight and Netflix’s Love is Blind being hugely popular), Love Island was a show that was once considered to be peak reality TV, and has since lost much of its sparkle - so who’s to say the Traitors won’t have the same fate?
Personally, I don't think it will. Not yet, anyway. Firstly, one of the many reasons the show was a hit with viewers was the return of the average person to the reality show format. While Love Island went down the influencer rabbit hole and shows like I’m a Celebrity, Strictly Come Dancing and Dancing on Ice base have celebrity contestants, shows where the contestants could be your next-door neighbour are most definitely on the rise, with The Traitors, Jury Duty and Squid Game the Challenge being huge hits in over the last couple of years - and we have no reason to believe that season two won't do the same.
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- Hijack - Idris Elba leads the cast as Sam Nelson, a courageous hostage onboard a hijacked commercial plane on a seven-hour flight from Dubai to London.
- Slow Horses - Star-studded spy thriller that follows a group of misfit intelligence agents who have been banished to the dumping ground department of MI5 after making career-ending mistakes.
- Lessons in Chemistry - Brie Larson stars in this adaptation of Bonnie Garmus's bestselling novel. It follows chemistry genius Elizabeth Zott, whose dreams of becoming a scientist are stunted by 1950s sexism.
- The Buccaneers - A frothy period drama that sees five young, rich American girls journey from New York to 1870s London, where they enter High Society in a bid to bag themselves an aristocrat.
- Ted Lasso - Jason Sudeikis plays a hapless American coach who comes to the UK to manage struggling football team, AFC Richmond.
- The Morning Show - Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon star in the drama, which examines the culture behind a network news show. After her co-star is accused of sexual misconduct, anchor Alex Levy is handed the reins to The Morning Show.
- Silo - A dystopian murder mystery thriller in which the last of humanity live underground in a giant silo and are forced to follow strict rules they believe are in place to protect them.
Should the show follow this format, there is a good chance that the show will be as moreish as its first outing. After all, the original, Dutch version of the show is currently in its third season and still going strong. With the Australian version and US version available on BBC iPlayer, it’s clear that viewers aren’t bored yet. So let’s havig you, Claudia!
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