The second episode of Celebrity Traitors drew in a peak audience of 8.6 million viewers.

The second season of the BBC gameshow launched on Thursday, with the premiere becoming the most watched debut episode of any series of the programme in the UK, with an average of 8.9 million viewers.

It then ended on a cliffhanger after actor Richard E Grant came under the spotlight during the first roundtable after he had previously slipped up and admitted he was a traitor, however viewers were left not knowing who had been banished from the castle.

The BBC has now revealed that the second episode of the season had a peak audience of 8.6m viewers with an average of 8.5m and an audience share of 55.5%.

After several contestants said Grant was the obvious person to banish, the actor worked to defend himself during the roundtable.

He said: “Well, the game had actually started, I was so relieved that it started because I had been so blatant about saying I came into this thing and it’s called Traitors, because I wanted to be a traitor.

“So when I walked into the bar, somebody said, ‘so you’re a faithful or a traitor?’, and I said, ‘I’m a traitor’, of course.”

This season of Celebrity Traitors features a star-studded cast including Grant, Love Island host Jama, actor Bella Ramsey, singer James Blunt, actor Julie Hesmondhalgh, content creator King Kenny and Little Mix’s Leigh-Anne Pinnock.

Six comedians are also taking part – Acaster, Joanne McNally, Joe Lycett, Miranda Hart, Rob Beckett and Romesh Ranganathan.

Rounding out the cast are actors Michael Sheen and Myha’la, broadcaster and mathematician Professor Hannah Fry, actor and presenter Ross Kemp, musician and actor Sebastian Croft and actor Sharon Rooney.

Speaking after finding out his fate on Friday’s episode, Rajan said: “It’s game over. It’s gutting to be the first out but James is a fantastic player and I guess people aren’t going to suspect him, and they might suspect me.”

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

The first series of the celebrity spin-off debuted last autumn with an overnight audience of 6.1 million, according to the BBC.

It was a ratings winner for the broadcaster and its 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, was also highly successful and 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.

The Celebrity Traitors continues Thursday night at 8pm on BBC One.