The news comes as the BBC confirms the future of The Traitors and The Celebrity Traitors

No, It is WILD to think that just a couple of months ago The Traitors fans across the nation were collectively racking their brains over the identity of the Secret Traitor.

Spoiler alert: it was icon Fiona Hughes.

ICYMI, Claudia Winkleman teased a new red Traitors’ cloak in a Christmas Day teaser ahead of the series 4 launch. And although we were in a festive drunk haze when we watched it, we were hooked from that very moment.

Claudia and the red Secret Traitors cloak ©BBC/Studio Lambert/Euan Cherry

We soon learned that Claudia had plans to appoint a Secret Traitor – the owner of the red cloak – who would be unknown to everyone including the viewers at home. Their role was to secretly guide the green-cloaked Traitors and manipulate early gameplay.

This twist lasted for a few episodes, and then just like that, Fiona was revealed to the Traitors. Not long after, she was sent packing following that WILD kitchen row with eventual winner, Rachel Duffy.

Fiona ©BBC/Studio Lambert/Cody Burridge/Matt Burlem

While, on paper, it was a decent twist that gave the series a new edge, it fizzled out at the final hurdle and we all basically forgot about it by the following episode.

And it seems that show bosses at Studio Lambert felt the same, as they’ve made the decision to drop the twist – in other words, series 5 of the civilian series and the second Celebrity Traitors will be red-cloak-free.

IGN recently reported CEO Stephen Lambert’s plans to banish the Secret Traitors twist. Stephen said, ‘A good format is something that’s designed in such a way that people feel a sense of familiarity with it, which is why they want to keep coming back to come back and watch it.

Traitors Rachel and Stephen ©BBC/Studio Lambert

‘But intrinsically it’s designed so that there’s sufficient variation, partly, obviously, through the change of cast, but also you want to make little changes within it. What I like about The Traitors is there’s so many ways that story can go, that once you add a different cast and once you think of some additional tweaks here and there.’

He continued, ‘After the huge success of the Celebrity Traitors, we introduced the idea of a Secret Traitor as a way of doing something that was different but it wasn’t something we wanted to keep going with.

‘It was a clever way of signalling we were doing something different, but I go back to the pleasure of the show being that the audience doesn’t know who the Traitors are. There have been other shows which have done something similar, where the audience didn’t know who ‘the mole’ was and the trouble is you’re completely a victim of the edit… and that doesn’t feel very satisfying.’

In other Traitors news, the BBC has confirmed a new three‑year deal that will keep both The Traitors and The Celebrity Traitors on BBC One and BBC iPlayer until at least 2030.

Claudia will return to host series two of the Celebrity Traitors later this year ©BBC/Studio Lambert

Kalpna Patel-Knight, Head of Entertainment Commissioning at the BBC says, ‘We are proud to remain faithful to The Traitors and The Celebrity Traitors until 2030 and wanted to say a big thank you to the outstanding team at Studio Lambert Scotland for bringing it to screen. We can’t wait to share many more twists and turns with viewers all across the UK in the coming years.’

It’s giving make room for The Traitors All Stars.