The Traitors' Claudia Winkleman announces shock twist ahead of tonight's final

Warning: Article contains spoilers for The Traitors

The BBC's new reality TV show The Traitors is speeding towards a climactic conclusion, but show host Claudia Winkleman decided to throw one final twist into proceedings.

If you've been watching The Traitors, but are a few episodes behind, then please be aware there will be spoilers for the show discussed below.

The reality TV show is essentially a grand version of the popular social deception genre of games, so if you've ever played a game like Werewolf you'll get the basic gist of what's going on.

The basic premise is that there's 22 contestants gathered together competing for a cash prize, but not everybody is on the same team.

Three of the contestants are 'traitors' aiming to work together in order to sabotage the whole process and win the prize for themselves.

By day the contestants get to figure out each other's roles and decide who among their group is getting banished in the hopes that they exile all of the traitors.

BBC

The traitors, meanwhile, get to kill someone every night of the game - eliminating them from the competition and bringing the group's numbers down even further.

When we say kill, there's no actual bloodshed here - even if tempers have become fraught and there have been plenty of arguments from contestants who feel as though they just can't trust the rest of the group.

The traitors have been doing very well throughout the game, whittling down the group to just five final members while losing only one of their number themselves.

With two traitors and three 'faithfuls' left in the game it's still all to play for as we head into the final episode, but Winkleman threw in one final twist the players will have to deal with.

Addressing the remaining group members ahead of the final episode, she told them they'd be getting one more chance to banish the traitors in their midst and the game wouldn't end until they decided to call time on it.

Normally with social deception games you know you've won once you eliminate all of the contestants on the other team and put your side's victory beyond doubt, but not this time.

BBC

The decision to end the game is in the player's hands, meaning the contestants will have to call an end to the game without knowing for sure if they've won or not, making their final decisions all the more risky.

Aaron, Hannah and Meryl are the three remaining faithful contestants, while Wilfred and Kieran are the two surviving traitors.

If even one traitor is still part of the group when the contestants say they think they've won then it's all over.

As for how it'll play out, I guess we'll just have to tune in and see what happens.

The final episode of The Traitors airs tonight (22 December) at 9pm on BBC One.