The hit BBC series returns to screens on January 1 and fans are already making predictions
A brand new series of The Traitors returns to screens on New Year’s Day (January 1) and fans think they’ve already sussed out a major new twist. BBC viewers were left stunned on Christmas Day when a new trailer for the hit show aired featuring a mysterious figure in a red cloak.
Claudia Winkleman is set to return to host the fourth series of the nail-biting, award-winning gameshow filmed at Ardross Castle in the Scottish Highlands. The TV show sees a group of 22 people from across the UK play ‘the ultimate game of detection, backstabbing and trust’ in the hope of winning up to £120,000.
The game sees Claudia choose her Traitors, who aim to go undetected while murdering the Faithfuls, who in turn must try to figure out who the Traitors are. Fans can expect ‘even more twists, turns, secrets, epic missions, deception, banishments and, of course, murders aplenty,’ the BBC says.
In the new Christmas teaser trailer, Claudia could be heard saying: “It’s a little bit different this year,” whilst a red-cloaked Traitor appeared – which differs from the classic green cloak. The host then continued: “The new series of The Traitors starts New Year’s Day at 8pm on BBC iPlayer.”
The ‘biggest UK Traitors fan account’ on Instagram @ukthetraitors, which has amassed more than 189,000 followers, shared a post on Saturday (December 27) with a picture of the mysterious red cloak, asking: “What could it mean?”. Fans then speculated about a format change or a new role in the game, such as a potential new type of traitor.
In the comments, one fan responded: “Red cloak – either it could be like a returning player which would be cool but wouldn’t really work, or it could potentially be like another type of traitor – one the normal traitors don’t know about, I’m not sure what their power would be but imagine the utter carnage if the secret traitor murdered one of the normal traitors.”
Another fan then said: “A secret traitor who nobody else knows,” as a second agreed: “We won’t know who one of the traitors is!,” and a third echoed: “Really hoping for a secret traitor that the other traitors don’t know about!!.” With anticipation building for the upcoming series, one fan wrote: “god i’m so excited,” as another said: “I can’t wait. Thank you for giving us a reason to get through Christmas.”
The new series follows three civilian series and the latest celebrity edition won by comedian Alan Carr, who fooled his co-stars into thinking he was a Faithful. In the non-celebrity version, The Faithfuls won series one with Aaron Evans, Meryl Williams and Hannah Byczkowski all sharing the prize.
Traitor Harry Clark then took all the prize pot in the second series, whilst Faithfuls Leanne Quigley and Jake Brown won the third series. The first episode of series four will air at 8pm on Thursday, January 1, followed by episode two at 8pm on Friday, January 2 and episode three at 7:45pm on Saturday, January 3.
