Inside Graham Norton’s ‘ruthless’ new ITV show The Neighbourhood where families on a real street compete in backstabbing challenges for a £250,000 prize – and it makes The Traitors look tame

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Graham Norton is hosting a new ITV competition called The Neighbourhood, where families on a typical street will face tough challenges and try to outsmart each other for a chance to win £250,000.

The show, filmed in the Peak District last year, intentionally fostered a competitive and backstabbing environment. Contestants pretended to get along while secretly plotting to eliminate each other.

This new reality show, expected to be as popular as Claudia Winkleman’s ‘The Traitors’, focuses on the everyday conflicts between neighbors – things like arguments over bins, noise issues, and subtle disagreements shared through group chats.

Graham, the 63-year-old host famous for his talk show and interviews with celebrities, said he was thrilled to lead the new series. It’s one of his biggest projects since leaving the BBC.

Similar to shows like I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!, this program includes big, exciting challenges. These range from a giant clothesline activity to a wild race with 2,500 garden gnomes.

The series was filmed 24/7 for three weeks, documenting contestants living together in a specially created community called ‘The Neighbourhood’. Graham keeps an eye on everything – and enjoys causing a little drama – by communicating with the group through a WhatsApp chat.

While filming on location in the Lake District, Graham announced their new show, ‘The Neighbourhood.’ He explained that the current location, named ‘Keep Your Enemies Close,’ would serve as the central setting where all the drama, tension, and humor of the show would take place.

You’re the very first to see ‘The Neighbourhood,’ and I’m thrilled to be directing it.

People who know me well understand I love my job, but I also tend to be quite lazy. So, when Lifted Entertainment and The Garden invited me to hear their pitch, my initial thought was to go along with it, then politely decline.

I was enjoying it so much, I knew I had to accept the opportunity, and that’s why I’m here.

Honestly, from the moment I heard about it, I was completely obsessed! It’s just… the sheer difficulty of the challenges, combined with getting a peek behind the curtain – seeing everything that happens 24/7 – it was irresistible. And then, to top it all off, a life-changing £250,000 prize? I was hooked instantly. Being here now, seeing it all unfold, it’s even more incredible than I imagined – the scale of this competition is just… extraordinary!

Ed Daggett, a development executive at Lifted Entertainment, hopes the new ITV show will be as popular as the BBC’s The Traitors. He noted that The Traitors has been incredibly successful at drawing in both dedicated reality TV fans and people who don’t usually watch the genre.

‘Of course, we would want to come close to that sort of success.’

Ed described how families on the show will compete in challenges to stay in the running. However, instead of a traditional vote, contestants will eliminate each other by putting a ‘For Sale’ sign outside the house of the person they want to remove on ‘removal day’.

Winning the large cash prize isn’t just about being competitive; families also need to get along with their neighbors and build strong relationships on the street, or they could lose it all.

He explained that the show will present significant difficulties, happening both during filming and behind the scenes.

We’ve created larger-than-life versions of everyday neighborhood activities and turned them into games. The first game features a giant, seven-meter-tall washing line where family members will spin around while being quizzed about one another.

We’ve got a fun, fast-paced game where players secretly watch the neighborhood at night and then test their observation skills with a quiz the next day.

We’re developing a game featuring mischievous gnomes. During our initial testing with 1,500 gnomes, players asked for even more – an additional 1,000, to be exact! We’re responding to that feedback and will now include 2,500 gnomes in the game. We’re taking familiar imagery and building a large-scale gaming experience around it.

Okay, so basically, if the players crush the challenges, they’re good – they get to stay safe in The Neighbourhood, which is amazing! But if they mess up, oh boy, they’re up for ‘The Removals’ – that’s what they call the vote, and it’s terrifying! Seriously, you do not want to be up for The Removals!

The homeowners secretly decide amongst themselves who they want to eliminate from the competition. Then, one by one, they publicly reveal their choice by walking to the chosen house and placing a ‘For Sale’ sign on the lawn.

At the end of the game, the family with the most ‘For Sale’ signs posted on their property has to move out of the neighborhood.

Oh my gosh, Graham is going to be right in the middle of everything! He’s basically controlling the whole show from behind the scenes, watching everyone through a group chat – a WhatsApp group, can you believe it?! It’s like he’s their puppet master, and I’m living for it! I need to know everything that happens in that chat!

Families might receive messages at any time, as they’re invited to activities like a visit to the local pub, The Uppin Arms, a barbecue, or a sports day, all happening during their three weeks on the show.

The Neighbourhood aims to recreate the feeling of normal, daily life, featuring a real café owner serving coffee and hosting occasional gatherings. But beneath the surface, everything is carefully planned to create rivalry between the families living there.

Okay, so Graham Norton is the only famous face on this show, which I think is brilliant – they wanted real families, you know, not people trying to be famous. But honestly? I’m already dreaming of a celebrity version! ITV is apparently thinking about it, and I’m crossing my fingers so hard! Imagine if my faves were on there… it would be absolute chaos, and I’d be glued to the screen!

Ed mentioned that Graham is constantly connected to the community through their WhatsApp group. He regularly shares voice messages about what’s happening, and while he isn’t physically present at the location, his frequent updates and information give the impression he’s a local resident.

The show tests how well contestants can compete fiercely while still maintaining good relationships with everyone around them – their fellow competitors and the local community – because everyone votes on who stays and who goes.

We’ve cast everyday people, and we’ve worked hard to keep things genuine throughout the series. Our goal is for viewers to see themselves – or people they know – reflected on screen. We hope it sparks conversations, even within local community groups and chats.

If the first season is successful, we’d love to feature celebrity families in future seasons – that’s our ultimate goal. We’d particularly enjoy having the Dyer family on the show.

  • The Neighbourhood starts Friday 24th April, 9pm on ITV1 and ITVX  

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2026-04-20 10:36