The Traitors: how the TV game is expanding and reaching a new audience with its companion podcast ?
The success of The Traitors in the UK is not just based on the original TV show; it is also based on an ‘augmented’ audio-visual strategy that extends the experience, captures attention beyond live TV, and reaches a different audience.
How and why did the idea emerge?
Traitors was adapted by BBC Studios for UK audiences. Over the seasons, the BBC and its producer wanted to go beyond the classic show: create a visual and audio ‘companion show’ to capitalise on engagement, extend the post-episode conversation and maximise exposure across multiple platforms.
And so The Traitors: Uncloaked was born, broadcast just after the main programme (on BBC Two and iPlayer) and also available as an audio version on BBC Sounds. The aim was to transform a simple television event into an audience experience offering immediate capture, an extension, bonus content and loyalty-building.
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A few figures illustrate the impact of this scheme:
- The main show (The Traitors, BBC One) attracted over 11 million viewers to the Celebrity season finale, confirming its status as a UK TV phenomenon (sources: BBC / Wikipedia).
- The companion TV version, The Traitors: Uncloaked (BBC Two / iPlayer) averaged around 1.8 million viewers per episode.
- The audio version on BBC Sounds has also found its audience: the podcast has exceeded one million cumulative listens around the broadcast of the final of previous seasons. This figure has been confirmed by both BBC Sounds and Listen/Platform Media, the producer. Over the same period, BBC Sounds announced 5 million active users in a fortnight, largely driven by The Traitors.
This performance is all the more remarkable given that the companion format does not cannibalise the main programme: it creates a second appointment and extends the life of the programme for other uses.
What’s the difference between The Traitors, The Traitors: Uncloaked on BBC Two and the audio podcast?
Main TV programme: The Traitors
- Classic format: broadcast on BBC One.
- The game itself: challenges, eliminations, suspense, manipulation, banishment.
- Linear use: prime time appointments, TV use or connected TV.
Companion: Uncloaked (BBC Two / iPlayer)
- Visualised podcast format (2 microphones, 2 chairs): typical episode of around 30 minutes.
- Content: immediate debrief after the main episode, interviews with the eliminated, celebrity guests.
- Usage: extends the TV experience by offering a second date on the same evening.
Audio podcast (BBC Sounds)
- Audio form only.
- Deferred use: listeners can consume while on the move
Towards more and more companion podcasts?
In a long article published by Yahoo TV UK, journalist Katie Archer looks back at the success of the companion podcast The Traitors: Uncloaked, which she describes as “the perfect model for an audio-visual spin-off”. According to her, Uncloaked has managed to transform the simple ‘after-show’ into a hybrid TV + podcast format capable of competing with the main programme.
The key: filmed content that blurs the boundaries between talk show, debrief and podcast and takes fans behind the scenes of the game, particularly when the eliminated contestants discover who the real traitors were. Archer also points out that Uncloaked has extended The Traitors brand to a new audience: listeners who don’t normally listen to podcasts.
By making the format ‘viewable’, the BBC and producer Platform Media have managed to turn the companion into a pop culture product in its own right, winning two British Podcast Awards 2025 (Best Entertainment & Spotlight Award). The article places Uncloaked in the context of a wider trend: the rise of companion podcasts to TV programmes, which originated during the confinement period and have now become essential loyalty levers for major audiovisual brands (from Love Island to Grand Designs).
Why is this Companion Podcast model interesting?
- It strengthens engagement, because the audience doesn’t just watch the programme and wait until the following week: it stays in the universe immediately afterwards, then continues to listen to it later.
- It multiplies the points of contact: TV, streaming, audio, social networks: which makes it possible to reach both “screen consumers” and “mobile listeners”.
- It enhances the programme’s brand: “The Traitors” becomes not just a programme, but a multiplatform brand, with variations and a social conversation.
- It optimises the audience funnel: from the main programme on BBC One, to Uncloaked, to the audio on BBC Sounds.
- For media outlets, radio stations or podcasts, this model suggests a hybrid approach: from the outset, think about an ‘after-show’ or ‘companion audio’ that extends the main broadcast, improves retention and reaches out to new uses.
To remember
The ‘augmented programme’ set up around The Traitors shows that it is possible to enclose the audience in a loop of experience: the main event, then the immediate visual extension or listening to the deferred audio discussion. And all this without cannibalising the main show, but rather amplifying it.
