''The Circle'' is a reality competition television franchise, first broadcast in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

in 2018, and subsequently syndicated internationally by

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

. Each version in the franchise features contestants who live in different apartments in a complex that is isolated from the outside world. The players are continuously monitored during their stay in the apartments by cameras as well as personal audio microphones. Throughout the course of the competition, they are eliminated, or "blocked", until only one remains and wins the cash prize. As of , four countries (UK, US, Brazil and France) have launched their installments to the franchise with a total of five competitions in the countries aired. All versions of the show are filmed in an apartment block in

Salford Salford () is a city and the largest settlement in the City of Salford metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. In 2011, Salford had a population of 103,886. It is also the second and only other city in the metropolitan county afte ...

in the United Kingdom.

Premise and format

The contestants, or "players", move into the same apartment building. However, the contestants do not meet face-to-face during the course of the competition, as they each live in their own individual apartment. They communicate solely using their profiles on a specially-designed

social media Social media are interactive media technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. While challenges to the definition of ''social medi ...

app that gives them the ability to portray themselves in any way they choose. Players can thus opt to present themselves as a completely different personality to the other players, a tactic known as

catfishing Catfishing is a deceptive activity in which a person creates a fictional persona or fake identity on a social networking service, usually targeting a specific victim. The practice may be used for financial gain, to compromise a victim in som ...

; for example, one male player in the first season presented himself as a female identity, while another female contestant used photos of a woman she felt was more attractive. Throughout the series, the contestants "rate" one another from first to last place. At the end of the ratings, their average ratings are revealed to one another from lowest to highest. Normally, the two highest-rated players become "Influencers", while the remaining players will be at risk of being "blocked" by the Influencers. However, occasionally there may be a twist to the blocking process – varying from the lowest rating players being instantly blocked, the identity of the Influencers being a secret, or multiple players being blocked at one time. Blocked players are eliminated from the game, but are given the opportunity to meet one player still in the game in-person. Then, the day after a blocking, a video message is shown to the remaining players to reveal if they were real or fake. During the finale, the contestants rate each other one final time, where the highest rated player wins the game and the cash prize. Some versions of the show also feature a "Fan Favourite" award in which viewers vote for their favourite player to receive to a smaller cash prize.

History

Concept

Tim Harcourt is the creative director of

Studio Lambert Studio Lambert is an independent British television production company based in London, Manchester and Los Angeles. It creates and produces scripted and unscripted programs for British and American broadcasters, cable networks and streaming platf ...

, which produces the British and American versions of the show. Harcourt wondered what a

reality show Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unfamiliar people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 19 ...

would look like if the people never met face-to-face. He had also been considering the idea of a

bird's-eye view A bird's-eye view is an elevated view of an object or location from a very steep viewing angle, creating a perspective as if the observer were a bird in flight looking downwards. Bird's-eye views can be an aerial photograph, but also a draw ...

-style documentary of an apartment building, seeing into each of their lives. He began to work on ''The Circle'' after hearing that

was looking for a reality-show format centered on social media.

International development

The British version of the show premiered in 2018, and was renewed for its second series a few months after the first season ended. After the first series was

's "youngest profiling" show in six years, according to the British TV industry magazine ''

Broadcast Broadcasting is the distribution of audio or video content to a dispersed audience via any electronic mass communications medium, but typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum ( radio waves), in a one-to-many model. Broadcasting began ...

'', talks began of international versions. On 8 October 2018,

announced its partnership with

All3Media All3Media Limited is a British worldwide independent television, film and digital production and distribution company based in London, England. The All3Media group comprises more than 40 production and distribution companies from across the U ...

to create three international versions of ''The Circle'' on Netflix, including the American version. Brandon Reigg, Netflix's Vice Principal of Unscripted Content, stated, "We think the show's combination of modern social media interaction and competition will captivate Netflix members around the world, in multiple languages, and we're delighted to partner with Studio Lambert and Motion to produce these three new local versions." The first international version, '' The Circle'' in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, premiered on 1 January 2020. Soon after, '' The Circle Brazil'' started airing on 11 March 2020 and ended on 25 March. Two weeks later, the entire first season of '' The Circle France'' was released on 9 April. On 15 June 2020, Channel 4 announced that they were commissioning ''The Celebrity Circle'', a celebrity version of ''The Circle'' as a fundraiser for the

Stand Up to Cancer Stand Up to Cancer (SU2C) is a charitable program of the Entertainment Industry Foundation (EIF). SU2C aims to raise significant funds for translational cancer research through online and televised efforts. Central to the program is a telethon tha ...

campaign in the UK.

International versions

As of May 25, 2022, 10 winners have been crowned within 5 different versions of ''The Circle''. : Franchise with a currently airing season (0) : Franchise with an upcoming season (0) : Franchise with an unknown status (1) : Franchise awaiting confirmation (0) : Franchise that has ceased to air (3)

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Circle (franchise), The Mass media franchises introduced in 2018 Television franchises Reality television series franchises Television series about social media