Roundtable revelations: Celebrity Traitors producer returns to UEA to explore why reality TV keeps us hooked
By: Communications
One of the masterminds behind The Celebrity Traitors will be returning to the University of East Anglia (UEA) campus in March, to unmask why deception and betrayal keeps audiences watching.
Stephen Lambert OBE, one of Britain's most successful television producers who graduated from UEA in 1981, will be hosting this year's spring Lasdun Lecture on Thursday 5 March.
This free lecture, ‘Why We Watch: The psychology of reality and the power of story’, is a chance for attendees to hear unique industry insights from the producer of the UK’s most popular programme of 2025 – The Celebrity Traitors – which drew in an audience of more than 15 million.
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This follows on from another UEA twist for this year’s The Traitors line-up, as another graduate takes centre stage on our screens. Harriet Tyce, a renowned crime fiction writer and former barrister who earned her MA in Crime Fiction at UEA in 2017, is one of the players featured in this current series’ line-up, where she will be putting her deductive skills to the test.
Stephen Lambert
Stephen Lambert is the founder and CEO of Studio Lambert, the production company he launched in 2008 with the support of All3Media. His programmes have won many awards, including several Primetime Emmys and more than a dozen BAFTA awards. He was awarded the OBE in last summer’s King’s Birthday Honours for services to television.
Lambert, who is one of the best-known creative television executives in Britain and America, said: “I’m looking forward to returning to UEA for this unique opportunity. This university helped give me the foundation to better understand the power of storytelling, and it’s exciting to come back and reflect on how those early ideas have shaped my career in television.”
Drawing on his experience creating global hits watched by millions, he will unveil what lies behind our fascination with reality and competition shows at this lecture, looking at programmes such as Undercover Boss, Race Across the World and Squid Game: The Challenge.
“We’ll be exploring why reality TV resonates so deeply with millions of people globally, and how it taps into universal human instincts – from trust and betrayal to empathy and ambition,” says Lambert.
“I’ll also be sharing insights from my time in the industry, looking at how these formats are evolving in the streaming age and the psychology behind series like The Traitors that keeps us hooked as viewers.”
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