CLAUDIA WINKLEMAN’S reality TV juggernaut The Traitors is looking unstoppable after the New Year launch of series three broke records.
While an average of 3.1million saw the previous series opener a year ago, on Wednesday night that figure was up by more than two million, with an audience average of 5.4million.
And so many rushed to see episode two on BBC iPlayer, the streaming platform crashed.
With millions more expected to view the episodes online, the murder mystery series looks set to break its own records.
Viewers hailed host Claudia’s choice of three female Traitors to launch the new BBC One series after she branded the last series’ all-male gang “like the olden days”, and she added: “Whatever happens, it was the right thing to do.”
To add to the suspense, tonight’s third episode will include a whole new twist, and Claudia said: “You can’t repeat. You want to give the people playing and the people watching something new.”
Today we focus on some of the cast who have helped to make The Traitors a TV treat.
Some of the Traitors cast are hiding past work as actors and have instead listed other jobs in their biographies for the show.
Jack Marriner-Brown said he was a landscaper and market trader, but he can currently be seen in the film The Apocalypse Box on Prime Video.
On his profile for casting service Spotlight he stated: “Set to appear in hit BBC REALITY SHOW JAN25 – currently appearing in AMAZON PRIME FEATURE – The Apocalypse Box.”
Jack, 25, was among the three Traitors contestants who were booted off the show in the first episode as the rest of the cast sacrificed them in exchange for £7,000 added to the prize pot.
Contestant Elen Wyn, 24, says she is a translator but trained at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in Cardiff and has also trodden the boards.
Francesca Rowan-Plowden, 44, is described as an interior designer but has acted in a troupe that performed Shakespeare plays.
Charlotte Berman, 33, says she is a business director but has worked in a team that promotes ITV dramas such as The Thief, His Wife And The Canoe and Trigger Point.
The team was also behind the publicity for recent cookery show Harry Potter: Wizards Of Baking, all of which means that Charlotte is privy to the inner workings of big productions.
Politics student Freddie Fraser had some viewers hot under the collar last night when he featured in a shower scene as part of the show.
We can reveal that away from his studies, the 20-year-old is a nifty footballer and model, who has modelled kit for Peterborough United.
Contestant Nathan Khider spent six months homeless before turning his life around and becoming a millionaire.
The 39-year-old property consultant did not tell his fellow Faithfuls that he is minted, though he has previously described his rollercoaster journey to riches.
People say six months is nothing, but at the time it felt like an eternity
Nathan Khider
After leaving school at 15 with no GCSEs, he struck gold with a property deal and made “enormous amounts of cash”.
But he lost it all on a party lifestyle and ended up living in his car for six months. Nathan, who was banished at the start of last night’s episode after being voted out by his fellow players.
He said: “People say six months is nothing, but at the time it felt like an eternity. It felt like I was there for ever. Every day, ‘What food do I eat? What clothes do I wear?’”
Finally he managed to get a job at an estate agency, then went to the Middle East, where he says he got back on his feet by “taking safe risks”.
Londoner Nathan, who now owns several successful businesses, added: “I told myself, ‘What’s the worst that can happen? I’ve already been homeless’.”
