“The Circle,” A New Reality Competition on Netflix has Fans Intrigued [See the first episode here, without Netflix]

The Circle bills itself as a game based around social media, with the concept that “anyone can be anyone in The Circle.” It has been compared to Big Brother and Catfish in format, as well as Black Mirror episode “Nosedive” with the concept of ratings.

The first season began airing on January 1, 2020; however, to get more people interested in the show, Netflix released an exclusive cut of the first episode for free on its YouTube channel on December 30, 2019. It is hosted by Michelle Buteau, and you can follow the series and dish about the latest developments on the TVFanForums.net.

The contestants, or “players”, all move into an apartment building. However, the contestants will never meet face-to-face during the course of the competition, as they will each live in their own individual apartment. They will communicate solely using their profiles on a specially-designed social media app, giving them the ability to portray themselves in any way they choose.

Throughout the series, the contestants will “rate” one another from first to last place. At the end of the ratings, their average ratings are revealed to one another from highest to lowest. 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 final, the contestants rate each other one final time, where the highest rated player wins the game and $100,000.

The first eight players were announced on The Circle’s Instagram on December 16, 2019. There will be a total of fifteen players selected from the “twenty to twenty-five individuals” being cleared to appear on the show, with the remaining people never leaving standby status and not appearing on the show. The seven players not announced prior to the show’s premiere were revealed as they first appeared and introduced themselves on-screen during an episode.

On December 29, 2019, The New York Times published an article describing the background and inside of the show. It was revealed that twelve episodes will be airing from January 1 to January 15 with four episodes being released every Wednesday as part of the “three week event.” On December 30, 2019, in order to attract more viewers to the new series, Netflix released the first thirty minutes of the first episode on their as a preview to the series, and here it is:

Concept

Tim Harcourt, the creative director of Studio Lambert, started wondering what a reality show would look like if the people never met face-to-face. He also started playing with the idea of a bird’s-eye view-style documentary of an apartment building, seeing into each of their lives. When Harcourt heard that Channel 4 was looking for a reality-show format centered on social media, Harcourt immediately realized the opportunity to make what is now The Circle.

Adaptation

The British version of the show premiered in 2018, and was renewed for its second season a few months after the first season ended. After the first season was Channel 4’s “youngest profiling” show in six years, according to the British TV industry magazine Broadcast, talks began of international versions. On October 8, 2018, Netflix announced its partnership with All3Media 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.”

Production

Casting

In an interview with Variety, Tim Harcourt, one of the executive producers for Studio Lambert, stated that The Circle format and premise allowed the casting team to search for all different kinds of people. He noted how the casting contrasted from casts on show like Real Housewives or Jersey Shore and how those shows are “all one gang of quite similar characters.” He explained how there was no set cast for the show until it was over. The first eight players to enter were all predetermined and planned, but everything after that was all luck to whoever got on. Harcourt stated that the production team would decide who would be the right fit depending on who just left the game, acknowledging that with fifteen contestants, not all who were possible players end up on the show at all.

The Circle app

Each apartment that the players live in is plastered with screens in every room in order for the players be able to hold conversations with other players as they go about their everyday lives. Each player starts out the game by creating a profile. This includes sharing their age, relationship status, a short bio, and one photo to use as their profile picture. Everyday, the players are allowed to share a status update, a sentence explaining their thoughts for the day. Sometimes, either through rewards or passing a certain milestone, the players are allowed to update another photo to their profile. However, the main purpose of The Circle is to be the only way players can communicate with each other.

At several points during the game, usually every episode, The Circle instigates a game so that the players can get to know their fellow players better. Tim Harcourt of Studio Lambert says that “some games were really good for bonding them, some were really good for them learning about each other, some were good for testing who’s a catfish, some could have been more divisive.”

Filming

In October 2019, it was reported that filming was completed. All filming was done in August 2019 before the British version’s second season in September 2019, and was completed in fifteen days. It was also reported that the American version was filmed in Salford, England, using the same apartment building that was used in the second season of The Circle UK. On December 10, a trailer for the American version was released, revealing the premiere date to be January 1, 2020, and the prize amount to be $100,000.