More than seven million viewers tuned in for the explosive third finale of hit BBC series The Traitors.
An average audience of 7.4 million watched project manager Jake Brown and former soldier Leanne Quigley triumph as faithfuls and receive a prize pot of £94,600.
The final episode of the current season aired from 8.30pm to 9.40pm on BBC One on Friday.
The game involves the faithfuls attempting to banish the traitors, who murder during the night, and if left at the end undetected can take the whole prize of up to £120,000.
In a change from previous years, contestants no longer reveal if they are faithfuls or traitors during the finale, so players do not know if there is a deceitful contestant still in their group.
Last year, 5.5 million people on average watched British army engineer and traitor Harry Clark win the whole prize of £95,150, after deceiving his friend Mollie Pearce in a dramatic finale.
The third Traitors finale had a peak audience of 7.6 million, while series two’s last episode reached a peak of 6.9 million, according to figures from the BBC.
In Friday’s episode interior designer Francesca “Frankie” Rowan-Plowden, and former British diplomat Alexander Dragonetti, were banished, as their fellow faithfuls did not believe that they were not traitors.
Business director Charlotte Berman, who had been pretending to be Welsh before being made a traitor later the series, was the first to be banished after she aroused suspicion from her fellow competitors.
Earlier in the episode, Francesca, who was granted the power of the “seer”, meaning she could find out secretly if a player was a faithful or traitor, was told, away from the other contestants, that Charlotte was deceiving her.
Charlotte maintained her innocence during the episode, but the other players decided to believe Francesca, who did not have any proof that her friend was a traitor.
The show, presented by Claudia Winkleman and made by Studio Lambert, has won a host of awards, including at the Bafta TV Awards in 2023 for best reality and constructed factual.
