Nail-biting finale brings The Traitors to dramatic end

The third series of The Traitors has been won after a nail-biting conclusion.

The finale saw faithfuls Francesca Rowan-Plowden, Alexander Dragonetti, Leanne Quigley and Jake Brown go up against traitor Charlotte Berman.

After weeks of challenges, murders, roundtables and banishments, the final prize fund stood at £94,600 after the last challenge of the series.

Ex-soldier Leanne and project manager Jake were the final two and split the money after revealing they were both faithfuls.

Leanne squealed and thanked Jake "for not letting me down".

Jake said: "I feel like my body feels like it's going to collapse but I'm just so happy."

The final roundtable was different from previous years in that players who were banished did not reveal whether or not they were a traitor or a faithful as they left.

That meant the remaining contestants had to rely solely on their instincts about whether or not there were any traitors left in the game.

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A late twist this year saw Francesca become "the seer", a power that enabled her to find out the true status of one other contestant.

Unfortunately for Charlotte, the last remaining traitor, Francesca chose her, and was able to find out her fellow player was not the faithful she had assumed.

The finale comes after a phenomenally successful series for the BBC, which has been watched by an audience of more than nine million, a figure which will rise as more viewers catch up.

That places this series above the previous two and makes The Traitors one of the biggest hits currently on British television.

As in previous years, several of this year's contestants attracted devoted followings online as the series progressed, with Linda in particular being one of the breakout social media stars.

Her delightfully appalling acting prompted hundreds of gifs and memes on social platforms in recent weeks.

Other stars of the series have included the impressively cunning traitor Minah, the extremely polite Alexander, the intuitive Fozia, and, of course, converted traitor Charlotte and her fake Welsh accent.

The third season has had a notably different narrative arc to the previous two.

In the first season, three faithful contestants won after rooting out the last remaining traitor, Wilf, during the finale. In the second series, original traitor Harry made it to the final, and won.

The third season is different in that none of the original traitors selected in the first episode made it to the end.

The differing routes of each series suggest the show's format has the potential to last for several more years, as each finale has kept viewers guessing and been hard to predict.

However, the contestants are becoming increasingly aware of the way the show is produced, speculating on the decisions being made behind the scenes.

For example, one of this year's faithfuls, Elen, correctly speculated in an early episode that there would be more female traitors this year, following a male-heavy line-up last year.

As players become progressively more savvy, producers will have to keep making changes to make sure the show remains fresh and unpredictable, keeping players on their toes.

A celebrity version of The Traitors will air later this year, giving the format another new spin. It has not yet been confirmed who will take part.