More than 15 million people watched the first episode of this year’s Celebrity Traitors in the seven days following its transmission, figures have shown.
It is the largest TV audience so far in 2026 based on what are known as consolidated ratings, which measure the number of UK viewers who watch a programme up to a week after it was first broadcast or released.
The figure is also the highest seven-day audience ever recorded for an episode of The Traitors, either in its celebrity format or the version involving members of the public.
The previous high was set by the final of the 2025 Celebrity Traitors series, which attracted a seven-day audience of 14.94 million.
The current series began on the BBC on Thursday October 1 when host Claudia Winkleman selected two of the 21 celebrity contestants to play the role of traitor – one of which was actor Richard E Grant, who promptly announced himself as a traitor to the startled reaction of the other players.
An average 15.41 million UK viewers watched the first episode in the seven days following its transmission, according to data published by the ratings organisation Barb.
The figure includes people who watched on computers, tablets and smartphones as well as on television sets.
The second episode on October 2 did nearly as well, with seven-day consolidated ratings of 14.95 million.
This is just ahead of the 14.93 million average audience for the BBC’s coverage of England’s World Cup semi-final defeat by Argentina on July 15.
By contrast, the highest seven-day UK audience for this year’s series of The Traitors – featuring members of the public rather than celebrities – was 11.99 million, for the episode broadcast on January 9.
Barb also publishes figures for audiences watching a programme up to 28 days after its broadcast or release.
While 28-day ratings for The Celebrity Traitors will not be available for several weeks, they are likely to show the number of people who watched the launch went on climbing beyond the seven-day mark.
The first episode of this year’s standard series of The Traitors added nearly one-and-a-half million more viewers between its seven-day consolidated audience of 11.85 million and its 28-days total of 13.29 million, Barb data shows.