Claudia Winkleman says it's 'problematic' that The Traitors keep murdering women

The Traitors host Claudia Winkleman has admitted it is "problematic" that the show's villains have murdered so many female contestants.

Winkleman presents BBC One's hot reality contest currently airing its second season, where a secretly selected group of players called the Traitors have to "murder" the rest of the group, labelled the Faithfuls, before they are detected by choosing a different person to axe from the game each night.

But viewers have noticed that the 2024 series players have got rid of a high proportion of women from the cast, and also seem to be concentrating on older contestants.

In fact, Traitors Paul, Harry and Miles even showed one of their own gang the castle door by conspiring to vote out the only woman Traitor, Ash, early on in one of the round table banishments where the whole group try to identify who is playing against them.

Winkleman was a guest on Wednesday's Woman's Hour on BBC Radio 4, where host Emma Barnett read out a question from a listener called Harriet.

She read: "Why is it that all the people that get murdered by the Traitors are all women bar one? And secondly, why are the Traitors so ageist? One of them (Traitors) was a woman and a bit older, so they murdered her straight away."

Winkleman replied: "Well, I mean, correct, Harriet. And I would like to sit down with Harriet and have quite a few conversations about it.

"I don't want to say anything, because what if people haven't watched? So I'm not going to say any names.

"But yeah, it's problematic. But then you'll carry on watching and you'll see, and that is all I can say."

The Strictly Come Dancing host also appeared to be referring to Traitor Paul, voted most popular by the group and who has managed to evade banishment despite questions about his behaviour, as she spoke about the group's most powerful members.

As she discussed The Traitors being compared to political battles at Westminster, she said: "It is interesting what power does, and how people are often scared of power, and genuine magnetism is all I can say about anything, both in series one and series two.

"I think you either have it, or you don't. I'm just talking about my reality show here. Some people are compelling and people are drawn to them. To watch that is extraordinary."

Winkleman also addressed her coveted wardrobe for the show, which takes inspiration from its Scottish Highlands setting, saying: "We go full tweed. We go Ronnie Corbett meets Princess Anne."

Asked whether she would prefer to be a Traitor or a Faithful, Winkleman said: "I always wanted to be a Traitor, but I actually think it's harder work. If you're a Traitor, you're tap dancing all the time because you have to keep the secret so close. But then you also have control.

"I know that either way, I'd be hopeless."

The Traitors continues tonight at 9pm on BBC One.

Read more: The Traitors

• Claudia Winkleman wishes she was 'cooler' (Bang Showbiz, 2 min read)

• This is why Claudia Winkleman 'got in trouble' with The Traitors producers during filming (HuffPost, 1 min read)

• Claudia Winkleman on hosting The Traitors: 'I turned 50 and thought I'd take a few more risks' (The Telegraph, 7 min read)