The Traitors overnight ratings hit epic new heights with tense Rachel and Stephen scenes

**Warning: Contains spoilers for The Traitors season 4**

The Traitors season 4 pulled in an impressive audience for its semi-final last night (22nd January).

The penultimate episode saw tensions reach a new high as Traitors Rachel and Steven attempted to throw suspicion onto each other.

And the action certainly kept viewers hooked, as an average of 8.44 million people tuned in to watch the instalment on BBC One, according to overnight ratings.

This figure is higher than Wednesday night’s episode, which drew in an average of 8.01 million viewers, and substantially higher than the season 4 premiere’s overnight viewership, which lured in an average of 6.4 million viewers.

Following the tense scenes between Rachel and Steven in Thursday night's semi-final, which saw their pact begin to falter, it was time for another roundtable discussion, which, in the end, came down to a tied vote between Rachel and Faithful James.

Host Claudia Winkleman then announced that the banishment would be left up to fate, with the Chests of Chance set to reveal the decision in the next episode.

Viewers will be able to find out who gets the boot in Friday night's finale, which the BBC previously revealed won't be airing in the show's usual slot at 8pm and will instead be broadcast at 8.30pm.

That won't be the only change to the format for the finale, with the episode also set to extend beyond its typical duration of 60 minutes and instead last for an hour and 15 minutes until 9.45pm.

It was announced last week that the season 4 finale will be screened in a number of cinemas across the UK, including Exhibit Cinema, Genesis Cinema, the Picturehouse in Finsbury Park and Clapham Grand in London.

Up north, The Light in Stockport, Mockingbird in Birmingham, Cultplex in Manchester and Showroom in Sheffield will also be showing the episode.

The Traitors season 4 continues on Friday 23rd January at 8.30pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer. Seasons 1-3 are available to watch on iPlayer.

Add The Traitors to your watchlist on the Radio Times: What to Watch app – download now for daily TV recommendations, features and more.

Check out more of our Entertainment coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.