The BBC kicked off New Year’s Day with a bang last night with The Traitors Season 4 opener followed by the return of The Night Manager after a decade.
The former drew an average 6.4 million overnight viewers, rising to a peak of nearly 7 million, which was roughly level with the recent Celebrity Traitors season and way ahead of the third season opener.
The episode, which introduced the nation to a new batch of contestants and had a fair few twists including a red cloak, was viewed by more than one third of people who were watching TV in the UK at the time.
It confirms The Traitors franchise as remaining all conquering. The celebrity version only concluded recently but was a huge hit, performing even better than the civillian Traitors as comedian Alan Carr came away with the big prize. The American Season 4 will launch on Peacock in just six days’ time.
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In one of the BBC’s biggest New Year’s Day lineups for years, The Traitors was followed by the second season of The Night Manager, coming exactly a decade after the first. This drew 3.3 million viewers and a peak of 3.8 million – becoming the fifth most-watched show of the day – which may appear slightly disappointing but will no doubt rise sharply when people catch up on iPlayer.
The Night Manager, which stars Tom Hiddleston, Olivia Colman and Camila Morrone, is adapted from the John le Carré novel and will kick off on Prime Video in the U.S. in two weeks’ time.
The previous season of The Night Manager opened to double last night’s, with 6 million overnight viewers tuning in on BBC One in 2016. It was one of that year’s biggest shows. However, this was back in 2016, when the landscape for linear viewing was different and only Netflix really existed as a go-to streaming platform.