It’s hard to imagine the long, cold winters without The Traitors to keep us all entertained – but luckily, you won’t have to for a long while.

The BBC is remaining faithful to The Traitors and its celebrity spin-off as it renews the show until at least 2030, meaning we’re in for at least four more seasons of backstabbing, shocking murders and unpredictable roundtable action.

Tim Davie, the outgoing BBC director-general, announced the exciting news during a valedictory speech to The Royal Television Society on Thursday morning.

While the main show and its celebrity format had already been renewed for additional seasons, this new deal means The Traitors will run for at least eight seasons in total.

The Celebrity Traitors‘ second season will air later this year, following the runaway success of the first last autumn, with a further three star-studded seasons planned through to late 2029.

Kalpna Patel-Knight, head of entertainment commissioning at the BBC, said in a new statement: “We can’t wait to share many more twists and turns with viewers all across the UK in the coming years.”

Meanwhile, the CEO of production company Studio Lambert, Stephen Lambert, enthused: “The Traitors has become a genuine television phenomenon across the world, but especially in the UK, and we’re thrilled to continue the journey with the BBC.

“It’s hugely exciting that audiences will have many more years of strategy, suspense and shocking twists still to come.”

It’s no surprise that the BBC wants to keep the show on air for as long as possible, given The Traitors has become a cultural phenomenon and a mammoth ratings success.

The Celebrity Traitors debuted on BBC One in October to an average audience of 14.9m, with 15.4m tuning in to watch Alan Carr win the series.

Meanwhile, the most recent regular run – which aired earlier this year – also hit a series high with a record-breaking 9.4 million average viewers tuning in to watch the finale on BBC One.

This new deal also cements iPlayer’s position as the British home of the international The Traitors franchise, with versions from the US, Ireland, New Zealand and Australia remaining exclusive to the iPlayer.

However, although The Traitors’ future is secure, one element recently added to the show is not.

Speaking at an event at the University of East Anglia in Norfolk, Lambert admitted there are no plans to bring back the divisive “Secret Traitor” twist when the show returns to our screens next year.

“There have been other shows which have done something similar, where the audience didn’t know who ‘the mole’ was, and the trouble is you’re completely a victim of the edit… and that doesn’t feel very satisfying,” he admitted.

Filming for the upcoming fifth season of The Traitors is expected to start this summer, with the season airing early next year.

The Celebrity Traitors’ second season will hit our screens in the autumn, and although a line-up has yet to be revealed, the likes Ruth Jones, Danny Dyer and Alison Hammond are rumoured to be entering the castle.