Killing time?

A crowd of mournersPeople who are grieving for somebody who has died. enter a wood, where they find three coffins lying beside a grave. Then the undertakerSomebody who prepares dead bodies for funerals. announces that one of them is about to die.

This was the scene in last Wednesday's episode of The Traitors. A popular contestant was leaving the gameshow, and the funeral was her farewell.

The concept for the The Traitors is simple. Twenty-two players are hoping to win a cash prize. Three of them are Traitors, working together to "murder" the other contestants. The rest of the players have to guess their identity.

Episodes of The Traitors are watched by an average of 5.4 million people,¹ with copycat versions across the world. What is the secret to the show's popularity?

Spooky setting. The gameshow occurs in a castle. Keeping contestants in one place means the pressure builds.

Guilty secrets. Other contestants have their own secrets too, and each episode brings a surprise.

Mission impossible. The cash prize increases depending on a series of challenges like sailing across a loch or firing crossbows.

Table talk. Each night the players vote off a suspected traitor, causing anger, tears, pleading and - typically - someone innocent being sent away.

Backing the baddies. Even though the Traitors lie and cheat, viewers hope they will escape undetected.

Fans of the show say it has revived reality TV, with all the tension of a thrilling novel.    

However, critics warn that watching television can lower your IQA means of measuring human intelligence. A person's IQ is usually ascertained by making them sit a standardised test. Some have criticised these tests as a means of evaluating intelligence, claiming that they ignore much of what it means to be intelligent.. Scientist Dr Ryan Dougherty has shown that people who watch an above average amount of television have reduced brain volume.² Better to read a book.

But perhaps the two pursuits have something in common. The Traitors shows how we suspect people for the smallest reasons, succumbFail to resist a negative force, or die from an illness or injury. to peer pressureWhen you feel like you have to do something in order to fit in with your friends. , and cannot stand cliff-hangers. Lessons a good novel will teach too.

Is this the new Dickens?

Yes: The Traitors shows how reality television can be as complicated and rewarding as any novel. Only a snob would say that books are automatically better.

No: Reality television might be addictive, but it never has the richness or depth you can find in fiction. People pretend otherwise because they're too lazy to read.

Or... Many of the pleasures of a good book - moving characters, atmospheric locations, gripping plots - can be found on television too. One does not need to replace the other.