Celebrity Traitors 2026 finale attracts record audience figure for the BBC - The Independent

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Comedian Romesh Ranganathan and actor Sebastian Croft emerged victorious as faithfuls in the Celebrity Traitors finale, after the players successfully banished traitors Maya Jama and King Kenny.

The pair will split the £83,000 prize pot.

Heartstopper actor Croft is donating his £41,500 share to the charity Choose Love.

Ranganathan said he would be giving his winnings to the Refugee Council.

Friday's dramatic conclusion drew an average overnight audience of 11.2 million, the highest yet for the show.

The BBC said the episode also recorded a peak audience of 11.6 million on BBC One, the highest of the series, alongside a 62.9% audience share.

It became the most-watched episode of the celebrity spin-off to date.

The average audience was higher than last year's finale, which attracted 11.1 million viewers overnight.

The Celebrity Traitors has been a ratings winner for the broadcaster.

The second series premiered at the start of October and recorded the most-watched debut episode of any series of the programme in the UK, with an average of 8.9 million viewers and a peak of 9.1 million.

It followed on from the success of the first series of the celebrity spin-off, which debuted last autumn with an overnight audience of 6.1 million, according to the BBC.

That series' nail-biting finale hit a peak of 15.4 million viewers – the biggest TV audience of 2025.

The civilian edition of The Traitors, which launched in 2022, is also highly successful.

It brought in an overnight audience of 6.4 million for its recent series premiere in January.

Its finale became the most-watched in the history of that version, with a peak audience of 9.6 million.

Meanwhile, King Kenny has admitted to turning against fellow Traitor Maya Jama in a last-ditch gamble to win.

Jama was banished at the BBC show’s final roundtable when the YouTuber, an ally of the Love Island presenter, voted to oust her over eventual joint winner Romesh Ranganathan.

“I felt like it was very obvious who the Traitors were in that room and, if I was sticking up for Maya, I would have looked very suspicious,” he said.

Speaking after his elimination, Kenny said the decision to betray the Love Island presenter Jama was “so difficult”.

“I really wanted me and her to be in the final, and then we would have taken the win, but I had to do a high risk, high reward move, taking her out,” the former boxer said.

After former Little Mix star Leigh-Anne Pinnock was voted off at the fire pit, players chose to banish again in the second round, with Ranganathan saying he thought singer James Blunt was a remaining traitor.

But Blunt insisted Ranganathan was “entirely wrong”, while Kenny opted to end the game and believed he may have won.

He said: “At first, I was like, I didn’t expect that, because in my head, the way I’ve been playing this game, I’ve just been visualising that I’m actually a Faithful. Why would I not want to end the game?”

The second banishment ended in a tie between Blunt and Kenny before actor Sebastian Croft persuaded Ranganathan to join him in banishing the YouTube star.

Kenny said: “I was very surprised that Bash voted for me, because he kept saying I trust you, I trust you.

“But I think by the time it gets to the end game, you can trust everyone, but it becomes about degrees of trust, and I think that’s where I didn’t play it right.”

Faithfuls Ranganathan and Croft won the show after Blunt was banished.

Kenny said he and Jama believed being close in the castle helped the pair avoid suspicion.

“We were just like, you know what, I honestly don’t think people will think that the Traitors will be so close,” he said.

Reflecting on the pressure of the competition, he said: “I lost some hair in the process, my hairline might have receded, but I like the pressure.

“It’s a very high-pressure environment, just constantly being on edge, you’re constantly lying, or manipulating – it’s something I’ve never ever done in my life, but I was able to poker face it.”

But Kenny added he preferred being a Traitor as it gave him greater control over the game.

Hosted by Claudia Winkleman, the show sees 21 celebrity contestants try to seek out the traitors among them who “kill off” players in the middle of the night.