Stephen Lambert, head of Studio Lambert, has named Tom Cruise as his dream contestant as Studio Lambert producer of Celebrity Traitors continues pulling more than 10 million viewers for some episodes. Lambert said the show has universal appeal and described it as appointment-to-view TV, a scarce position in a market where big mass audiences are now unusual.
Lambert’s 10 million audience
More than 10 million people have tuned in to watch some episodes of the new season, while 1.6 million aged between 16 and 34 watched the premiere. Those numbers put Celebrity Traitors in the small group of TV events that can still gather a broad audience at once, rather than fragmenting it across devices and schedules.
Lambert said, "It’s very difficult to get people to watch programmes, and there is a huge joy coming up with something that a very large amount of people watch". He also said, "The show has universal appeal … It has established itself as ‘appointment-to-view TV’". That is the business case here: the series is not just retaining viewers, it is concentrating them.
Tom Cruise and the cast
Asked about dream contestants, Lambert said, "Tom Cruise, maybe?" He also said, "And we would like to have a big sports star. But if they are an active one, they have commitments." That gives a clear picture of the casting logic: the show wants names with broad reach, but the schedule and media control around active sports stars make them harder to secure.
Lambert added that casting for Celebrity Traitors was not difficult because the people who agreed to go into the castle were fans of the show. In practice, that means the series is recruiting from people who already understand the format and are willing to be tested by it, which helps explain why the celebrity version has scaled so quickly.
Dramatic irony on TV
Lambert said the secret to the success of The Traitors is "Dramatic irony." He explained, "It’s the engine of The Traitors" and added, "It’s about the pleasure that we know more than the protagonists – we know who is lying. And it’s fun to try and watch people work out who the liars are."
He said the celebrity edition sharpens that effect because, "It’s such an immersive game that people get caught up in it, and show how they really are". In other words, the format turns well-known faces into participants who cannot control the narrative around them, and that is exactly what keeps the audience locked in.
The open question is whether Cruise, or any big sports star, will actually agree to appear on Celebrity Traitors. For now, Lambert has the audience numbers and the casting wish list, but the hardest part of the job still sits with the people who have to say yes.
