While most unscripted shows shed viewers as they enter their later seasons, Peacock’s “The Traitors” has consistently flipped the script, closing out its fourth installment with its biggest ratings to date.
After its celebrity-filled Season 2 broke through as a cultural phenomenon, the following two installments grew in viewership, with Season 4 skyrocketing 72% when compared to Season 3, according to first-party data from Peacock. All together, “The Traitors” tallied 6.4 billion minutes viewed on Peacock since the Season 4 launch, according to Nielsen viewing numbers from the Jan. 8 premiere through March 8.
“Traitors” stands out amid the broader unscripted landscape because of that increase, according to Dave Kaplan, NBCUniversal’s EVP of content analytics and measurement. “You look at two or three dozen [unscripted] shows across the landscape, the vast majority of them are either stable or down in their early seasons after launching,” he said.
“‘Traitors’ has definitively bucked that trend,” Kaplan added. “Since Season 1, we’ve seen an upward trajectory in terms of its performance every season, including in the most recent fourth season, so it really is charting a path that we do not typically see in terms of new unscripted shows.”
“The Traitors” is enjoying a similar bounce to Peacock’s “Love Island USA,” which saw ratings growth in its seventh season after breaking out in its sixth, which Kaplan noted reflects both an influx of Peacock subscribers as well as increased engagement from existing subscribers with each new season. In fact, 43% of viewers for “The Traitors” Season 4 were first-time viewers of any “Traitors” title.
“We’re galvanizing our existing base, but we’re also growing it from new users, meaning people that are coming in and signing up for Peacock for the first time to watch these shows,” Kaplan said.
What’s fueling that growth for both series, beyond enticing casting, is Peacock’s appointment TV strategy, which was embraced for “Love Island” with a daily release schedule — which Kaplan noted created a “ritualistic behavior” — while “The Traitors” dropped new episodes Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT. Appointment viewing for “The Traitors,” which is counted as the number of people watching right at the time the new episode drops, saw a steady progression throughout the season, with anticipation — and the fear of spoilers — mounting in the lead-up to the finale.
The appointment TV strategy goes hand-in-hand with weekly watch parties, “The Traitors” ranking as Peacock’s No. 1 unscripted title for co-viewership with 56% of season 4’s audience watching with someone else.
This bucks the trend of most people watching shows on their own schedules now, opting to stream new episodes hours or even days after they premiere, or even waiting until a full season is out to binge-watch it. But “The Traitors” leveraged the urgency surrounding its twists and turns to train its audience to watch live, which in turn has been a boon for Peacock.
“There was really this moment in time that they wanted to experience alongside other people, whether that was in the room with them,” Kaplan said. “They were coming together at a very specific time to experience and discuss the show together, and I think people wanted to be able to talk about it on social … but not have anything revealed … I think, drove this more urgent tune-in effect.”
Notably, “The Traitors” Season 4 has tallied 366 million video views across Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube and X since its launch.
After “The Traitors” Season 4 dropped its first three episodes on Jan. 8, the show scored 790 million minutes during the week of Jan. 5, per Nielsen, marking a new weekly viewership high for the series, that was quickly broken the following week with 892 million minutes.
Viewership slowed down across the subsequent weeks, but scored another weekly high with the debut of the finale and the reunion on Feb. 26, which delivered
913 million minutes during the week of Feb. 23.
As overall viewership grew, so did appointment viewing, with Kaplan noting appointment viewing for Season 4 doubled from the launch through the finale. “That kind of appointment viewing pattern not only grew within the season, but it also grew versus prior seasons as well,” he said. “I think the show just increasingly has become a little bit more of a cultural touch point for audiences.”
Beyond “The Traitors” itself, the competition series drove viewers to other Peacock series that feature “Traitors” contestants, with “Top Chef” seeing an influx of new viewers after seeing Kristen Kish on the show.
“It’s not an accident that we’ve created this flywheel within the Peacock platform that really helps to extend the fandom across assets and across shows,” Kaplan said, noting the familiar Bravo talent helped make “The Traitors” an “easy” entry point for viewers. “We definitely see it working in both directions.”
While the crossover trick for reality stars has been noted as a surefire way to bring in impressive ratings, Kaplan notes the importance of stoking the fandom via social content or other content to not only drive engagement between episodes, but increase “holistic” interest in the show itself.
Opening Day scores out of the ballpark
The MLB’s opening day saw several platforms hit their ratings out of the ballpark, including NBCUniversal, whose two-game presentation delivered the largest MLB Opening Day audience on record for a multi-game presentation by a single network with an average 2.7 million viewers across NBC and Peacock.
Netflix’s opening day scored an estimated average minute audience (AMA) of 3 million US viewers, whereas Fox’s two-game slate scored 2.59 million viewers, marking the network’s best season-opening telecast since 2021.
“Outlander” final season debuts strong
The debut of “Outlander” Season 8 scored 3 million multiplatform viewers in its premiere week, marking a four-year series high and securing the top spot for the week among all scripted cable programs.
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- “The Madison” scored the biggest first season launch that a Taylor Sheridan series has ever seen.
- “CBS Evening News” dipped below 4 million viewers months after its rocky relaunch.
- The “Hannah Montana” 20th anniversary special climbed to 6.3 million views in three days on Disney+ and Hulu.
- “Fallout” Season 2 reached 83 million viewers globally in first 91 days.
- The “Peaky Blinders” movie remained atop Netflix’s top 10 movies list with 19.4 million views in its second week.
