Killing time?

A crowd of mourners follow a funeral procession. As the mourners enter the woods, they find three coffins lying open 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 BBC gameshow The Traitors. A popular contestant was leaving the show, and the funeral was her farewell.

The concept for The Traitors is simple. Twenty-two players gather in a castle, 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 An accompanying app, podcast, puzzle book and board game have all been created, as well as copycat versions across the world.

But what is the secret to the show's popularity?

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

Guilty secrets. Other contestants have their own secrets too. The show is structured so that each episode brings another surprise.

Mission impossible. The players are competing for a cash prize, which increases depending on a series of challenges. Whether sailing across a loch or firing crossbows in a church, it all adds to the drama.

Table talk. Each night the players sit round a table to vote off a suspected traitor, causing anger, tears, pleading, and - typically - someone innocent being banishedSent far away. from the show.

Backing the baddies. Even though the Traitors lie and cheat, viewers hope they will escape undetected. So the show makes traitors of the rest of us too.

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.. Respected scientist Dr Ryan Dougherty has shown that people who watch an above average amount of television have reduced brain volume.² Much better to read a book or play a board game.

But perhaps the two pursuits have more in common than meets the eye. 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 pressure, 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.