Why the UK's 'Celebrity Traitors' Is Must-Watch Television

I haven’t seen all the international versions of Traitors (as my Podjiba co-host Dan Hamamura has), but I have watched every season of the U.S. Traitors. It’s a blast, although I worry nothing will ever top the first-season finale. Without spoiling anything, the winner played what was possibly the perfect game. Everything since feels like it can’t quite measure up.

Except the UK’s Celebrity Traitors (now streaming on Peacock), which is a completely different kind of game with completely different players and entirely different stakes. It’s just as tense and fun, but it adds something rarely seen in the American Traitors: kindness, respect, and genuine friendship.

I get why the tone shifts in the U.S. The reality stars are playing for income, and they’re also jockeying for future casting. They’re performative, dramatic, messy. The British celebrities, though, are there for the experience. Many are veterans of the British panel show circuit (including Taskmaster alums). Many arrive as friends, and by the end, they’re basically all friends. They’re charming, funny, witty, irreverent, and never messy.

And while the British cast plays for charity, the stakes still feel high. They’re genuinely heartsick when they have to vote off friends, especially Faithfuls. Again, no spoilers, but the Traitors carry the weight of eliminating people they sincerely like. They lie because they must, but you can see how uncomfortable they are with it.

And the cast? My god. They’re not C-list Real Housewives. They’re household names in Britain: 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, Tom Daley.

You haven’t lived until you’ve watched Celia Imrie play Traitors, or Nick Mohammed (Ted Lasso) put his brains to work, or Alan Carr visibly sweat under pressure. I was sad every time someone left. As great as the first American season was, it has nothing on the finale of the UK’s Celebrity Traitors, which honestly made me misty thanks to its warmth and generosity of spirit. No hard feelings. Just hugs and high fives.

You’d never guess that Traitors could restore your faith in humanity, but that’s before you’ve seen Stephen Fry intellectualize a reality game, Joe Marler (a former rugby player) reveal his inner teddy bear, or brilliant historian David Olusoga struggle with how to navigate the show’s moral knots. It’s a blast, but it’s also deeply warm-hearted. Honestly, it’s kind of the perfect family watch for the holidays.