Television series

The Traitors

Name: The Traitors
Released: 2022
Cast: Claudia Winkleman

Claudia Winkleman presides over a Highland castle full of liars, and the show turns paranoia into a national sport. Watching strangers accuse each other over breakfast, knowing one wrong guess ends their game, is compulsive in a way few competition formats manage. It's suspenseful, funny, occasionally cruel, and built for shouting at your telly.

TVMaze rating

8.2

If you liked this

Survivor2000

The original social-strategy game, and still the best demonstration of how alliances curdle under hunger and exhaustion. Twenty-plus seasons of pure tribal-council paranoia if you want the deep cut.

But Decades of episodes, and the earliest seasons look and move very differently to the slick show it became.

The Circle2020

Same DNA of deception and ranking strangers you barely know, but everyone's isolated behind screens, so the lying is entirely verbal. It's The Traitors with the physical tells removed.

But The catfishing gimmick wears thin faster than round-table drama, and some seasons sag in the middle.

Big Brother2000

The house that taught Britain to distrust its neighbours. Slower and grubbier than The Traitors, but the same forensic fascination with who's performing and who's cracking.

But Nightly feeds and endless housemates can feel like a chore compared to The Traitors' tight, murder-mystery structure.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

And Then There Were None1945

Agatha Christie's isolated-house whodunit is the direct ancestor of the show's format: a closed group, a hidden threat, and deduction as the only weapon.

Ten strangers marooned in a house, one of them a killer, everyone accusing everyone else — this is the story engine The Traitors runs on, built decades before reality TV existed.

But Black-and-white, stagey, and paced for 1945 patience rather than modern binge instincts.

The Mole2022no page yet

Literally the same premise in miniature: a saboteur hidden among contestants, everyone accusing each other, a quiz at the end to catch you out if you weren't paying attention.

But Lower stakes and less starry format than The Traitors; the Netflix revival can feel like a tribute act.

Squid Game2021

Fiction, but it scratches the same itch: strangers thrown together, alliances forming and breaking under pressure, betrayal as the only route to survival. Just with far higher stakes.

But It's brutally violent where The Traitors is bloodless, and the game-show satire is much darker in intent.

Weakest Link2000no page yet

Anne Robinson presiding over a group deciding who to eliminate is basically a round-table in miniature, minus the whispered plotting — just pure, public, gleeful blame-shifting.

But There's no hidden traitor, no long game — just quiz answers and elimination, so the psychological depth is thinner.

The Great British Bake Off2010no page yet

The perfect palate cleanser after a Traitors binge: same tent-pole Britishness, zero backstabbing, everyone hugging it out over collapsed sponge. Comfort viewing for shredded nerves.

But If you came for suspicion and scheming, this offers precisely none — it's the anti-Traitors by design.

Catfish: The TV Show2012no page yet

A gentler, sadder cousin — people uncovering who's been lying to them online, episode after episode. The detective instinct The Traitors sharpens gets a real-world workout here.

But It's repetitive by format, and the emotional fallout is often genuinely upsetting rather than entertaining.

12 Angry Men1957

Strip away the castle and the prize money and you get this: a jury deciding truth from behaviour and rhetoric alone, exactly what a Traitors round-table is doing under the jokes.

One room, twelve men, no game show gloss — just pure persuasion, doubt, and the terrifying ease with which a group can talk itself into believing the wrong person.

But No twist, no elimination, no fun music cues — it's a serious, claustrophobic drama with real moral weight.

Liar Game2007no page yet

Same obsession with trust, deception and game theory among strangers, just recast as Japanese television drama instead of British reality TV — the format's DNA in a completely different costume.

A Japanese drama where naive contestants are dropped into elaborate psychological games designed to reward betrayal — think The Traitors rebuilt as a stylish, subtitled thriller with higher IQ villains.

But It's a fully scripted drama, not reality, and the heightened style and subtitles are a genuine barrier for some.