How Celebrity Traitors has proved to be an antidote to one evil of the Internet Age

At the dawn of the internet age, there were confident predictions that mainstream television would soon be dead. Instead of watching the traditional channels, everyone would just stream programmes on demand, rather than being a slave to the schedule.

The dramatic increase in choice for viewers was hailed as a modern marvel. However, there then came much gnashing and wailing over the demise of ‘event TV’, in which the nation gathers around their televisions to watch favourite programmes together.

Would tens of millions of people ever tune in to EastEnders or Coronation Street at the same time again? Were families doomed to an eternity of evenings apart, sitting alone with their screens? Would familial bonds break? Would society survive this technological evil?!

READ MORE: What happened on The Celebrity Traitors? 5 of the best (and most shocking) moments from episode one

You can watch Claudia Winkleman and The Celebrity Traitors in iPlayer but millions of people prefer to see the show when it's broadcast (Picture: Ian West) | PA

Happily, it hasn’t worked out like that. The Celebrity Traitors, filmed in Ardross Castle in Ross-shire, is proving event TV is very much alive and well, with the first show of the new series attracting a peak audience of 9.1 million on Thursday.

Turns out there’s nothing like famous people doing sneaky things, pretending to ‘murder’ people and so on to bring us together.