While there’s been no official announcement from RTÉ yet, Kite Entertainment posted a call out on Instagram last week looking for members of the public to take part in future series. So, it seems there is little doubt that The Traitors Ireland will return.
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And why not? It’s been a roaring success, RTÉ’s biggest hit in a long, long time, loved equally by the critics and the people whose opinion matters most – the viewers.
An average audience of 600,000 tuned in over the course of the four weeks. The figure swelled to 732,000 – more than twice what The Late Late Show is currently pulling in – for the finale on September 23.
But no sooner had the pyrotechnics flickered out than bookmaker Ladbrokes was offering 10/11 odds that there’ll be a celebrity version at some point.
This is nothing more than speculation, but if it’s going to happen, it would make sense to wait until after the regular show has got another season or two under its belt.
Next Wednesday (October 8), BBC One unveils its very first celebrity version of The Traitors. Please, please, please, RTÉ, don’t follow suit.
Why? Because it’s a betrayal of everything the show stands for and what makes it so great.
Charlotte Church will feature in ‘The Celebrity Traitors’. Photo: BBC
The most important thing about The Traitors, the thing that makes it so appealing, is not the challenges. It’s not even who wins. No, the beating heart of the show is the players.
The 24 who turned up at Slane Castle at the start and the three who left winners at the end were ordinary people like you and me, facing the same everyday problems we all face: holding down a job, paying bills, keeping a roof over our heads, getting by.
They had ordinary dreams too. What was both touching and sad about The Traitors Ireland was how many of the younger players hoped to win enough money for a deposit, or at least part of one, on a home, or simply to pay the rent. Yes, it was fun – and sometimes stressful – to see them lying, scheming, manipulating, secretly making allegiances and then publicly breaking them.
You never lost sight of the fact that there was something tangible at stake for all of them
The viewers developed their own favourites (who didn’t love wily silver fox Paudie?) they could root for, as well as a few players they could root against – although nobody here was an outright hate figure, which was refreshing.
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Every one of them was, in one way or another, relatable. You never lost sight of the fact that there was something tangible at stake for all of them. Introduce celebrities into the equation, however, and you lose that relatability. The whole dynamic of the show collapses.
The Celebrity Traitors on BBC One features an uncommonly starry line-up, including Stephen Fry, Paloma Faith, Nick Mohammed, David Olusoga, Celia Imrie, Charlotte Church, Alan Carr, Clare Balding and Jonathan Ross.
Jonathan Ross is another celebrity contestant. Photo: BBC
While you can’t assume all of them are as rich as Ross, who’s worth £35m (€40), most of them probably aren’t direly in need of the £40,000 (€45,800), each they’re pocketing for appearing (incidentally, £40,000 multiplied by 19 celebs comes to £760,000 (€871,000), which dwarfs the potential £100,000 (€114,000) the charities they’re playing for will receive).
All these celebrities are, in one way or another, performers: actors, singers, comedians, TV presenters. They’re all used to being in front of a camera.
So what we’ll be seeing when they cloak up to “murder” another player or gather at the round table to banish those they perceive as a threat is a performance. An imitation of duplicity. A reality show without any sense of reality.
For the celebrities, it’s just another gig. With nothing at stake for them, there’s nothing for us to care about.
