The BBC’s Celebrity Traitors launch has become one of the most highly-anticipated of the year and a colossal 8.9 million viewers tuned in last night. They watched an opener of high high drama, and a little bit of eccentric comedy.

No spoilers in this article – check out our recap here – but per the just-released overnight figures, last night’s 75-minute opener was watched by 8.9 million, peaking just over 9 million.

This is comfortably a record for the opening episode of The Traitors in the UK across both celebrity and civilian versions. The number will inevitably grow once people who missed last night’s ep catch up.

Last year’s Celebrity Traitors Season 1 kicked off with 3 million fewer viewers and the opener of the civilian Traitors from earlier this year was similarly far behind.

Last night’s ep was watched by more than half of the overall number of people tuning in to TV at the time, an enormous share of nearly 55%. It became the second most-watched episode of TV this year, excluding sport, behind only the final episode of the civilian Traitors from January. It was followed by companion show Celebrity Traitors: Uncloaked, which drew in 3 million viewers.

Celebrity Traitors is into its second season and will air every Thursday and Friday night at 8 p.m. GMT (12 p.m. PT) for the coming month.

Cast this season includes Jerry Hall, Richard E. Grant, Myha’la, Bella Ramsey and Maya Jama.

There is also Joe Lycett, Miranda Hart, Romesh Ranganathan, Amol Rajan, Professor Hannah Fry, James Blunt, Julie Hesmondhalgh, Leigh-Anne Pinnock, Michael Sheen, Ross Kemp, Sharon Rooney, Joanne McNally, King Kenny, Rob Beckett, and Sebastian Croft.

The show is now arguably the BBC’s biggest entertainment juggernaut and anticipation was huge for last night’s opener. Trails have been shown during all BBC primetime shows for a while now. The fifth season of the civilian Traitors will kick off early next year. In the U.S., Peacock continues to air a successful version hosted by Scottish presenter Alan Cumming.

Celebrity Traitors is produced by Studio Lambert.