Celebrity Traitors debut draws almost 9m viewers and more than half of TV audience

Series opener had 3m more viewers than last year to see Claudia Winkleman select the first batch of traitors

Almost 3 million more viewers tuned in to the new series of Celebrity Traitors than for its previous debut episode, confirming its status as one of the few television shows capable of attracting the nation on to the sofa.

More than half of the audience watching TV at that time chose to witness the new cast of celebrities enter the show’s famous castle and observe the presenter, Claudia Winkleman, select the first batch of traitors.

Thursday night’s season premiere drew an average audience of 8.9 million viewers and a 54.9% share of the viewing audience, according to overnight data from the Digital i agency.

In comparison, the opening episode of last year’s debut series of Celebrity Traitors, which started slightly later in the evening, drew an overnight average audience of 6.1 million and a 46.4% audience share.

The show has become an increasingly rare example of a programme that can attract a truly mass audience, quickly making it one of the BBC’s crown jewels as it battles to show it is delivering for all viewers.

While there has been a huge fall in the number of gen Z live television viewers, Celebrity Traitors had an extraordinary 83.5% share of the 16- to 34-year-olds watching TV in that time slot – an average audience of 1.6 million.

“Across the last season, hype built around the show as the weeks progressed, until near the finale when it became an undeniable water cooler moment for much of the nation,” said Helen Daddow, an analyst at Digital i.

“This hype no doubt drew new audiences as well as longtime Traitors fans to watch the first episode live last night. This includes audiences who don’t often watch live TV, like individuals aged 16 to 34.”

The audience numbers have been boosted by the star-studded cast, which includes the actors Richard E Grant and Michael Sheen, as well as fellow actor Bella Ramsey, former model Jerry Hall and comedians Miranda Hart, Romesh Ranganathan and James Acaster.

TV insiders have said that the compelling gameplay of the show and its popularity mean that it is not a struggle to convince top names to take part.

The show has also proved it can boost the careers of even well-established celebrities, such as last year’s winner, the comedian Alan Carr. Others who entered the castle have seen their media careers take off as a result, such as the former England rugby player Joe Marler.