The Circle

I thoroughly enjoyed it and some of the things I said prior to the series were relevant such as existing friendships which gave a nice new dynamic when someone was a catfish.

I would be up for more celebrity series, and extended, though if they went for the same amount of time as a normal series it would probably be of benefit to have celeb continue to be around this time of year with civilian back in the autumn slot.

I think the way they reveal the winner is fine, I would rather they be together than in their apartments (though no one suggested that), in the grand scheme it was quite a good idea to change the studio into Emma's penthouse, when I watched the American version the studio was very large when without an audience. I personally like having the live Friday episodes of Series 2, so it may be due to my liking also.

One thing that I think would be of benefit in future series (even though many may see it as jumping on the bandwagon) would be having a spin off discussion show (BOTS-esque), "The Inner Circle", a little like the first Friday show in Series 2 where Courtney Act and Scarlett Moffat gave their views of the week that was, even if it was an accompaniment to live shows rather than every weeknight. The official podcast has been a nice addition though by discussing different topics with guests.

It was the same with the Netflix US series - the show has such a strong identity that a sudden switch to a studio show feels out of place when the winner could be revealed at the final dinner party.

Certainly a place for a "live show" element to chat to eliminees and dissect things further but think it would work better as a separate spin-off show than within the main show.


The Celeb version though did work much better than I thought it would and an extra couple of episodes would have been nice but would rather they keep it to around a week with the celebs not taking their fee than extending it to 2-3 weeks and them being paid.

The Circle is my guilty pleasure viewing - I lost interest in Big Brother around Series 5 and didn't even watch a single episode of Series 1 of The Circle but became absolutely hooked with Series 2 (they know how to make a good cliffhanger!)

The celebrity series has definitely left me wanting more in the future, there were actually quite a few things missed out (their Circle profiles were updated erm...a whole once during initial creation!), but I think in future the celebs will need to tone down their catfish ambitions - Rachel Riley a fantastic idea, you could see her actually doing it, will.i.am not so much!

Although it does slightly reduce the novelty of having Zoe Ball's son and Richard Madeley in the civilian series!

Well they've got Hunter from Gladiators in the civilian version, catfishing as an NHS nurse (which seems a bit iffy), but I think he is playing for an NHS charity.

Yes, I did wonder that about the profiles. But I suppose it’s not as interesting as on the civilian one where they drip feed a new picture or more information.

That’s probably the biggest issue with the celebrity show, they cannot create a good character who they think will win. Even Saffron who decided to pretend she was single, not in a relationship, was more or less rumbled because someone else followed her on Instagram & remembered a partner.

Although I suspect it picks up with catch up and streaming, it's overnights are pretty poor really - just 850k last night. Deserves so much more IMO.

That said it is also a show that perhaps unlike Big Brother and I'm a Celeb is still quite watchable long after it has aired. Like a few others I only watched the first series after the second, and even though I knew who won the show is under the radar enough for you not to know how it plays out or the boot order.

The main series moves to 10pm where it may do a bit better, but I think the worrying thing for C4 is they have huge overnight ratings for shows like Gogglebox and Bake Off but really struggle to launch anything off the back of them.

It's definitely bingeable. I'm an episode or two behind so will be catching up, I suspect that's fairly common.

How does Celebrity Bake Off do compared to the regular series? One would think it would be more of a draw to see recognisable faces but I feel as if not many people bat an eyelid until the civilian series starts.

Celeb bake off started with an overnight of 3.4m this series. Bake off’s first episode last year had an overnight of 6.9m/consolidated to 10.8m.

I love the Circle,. The UK, French, Brazilian and the US version.... but do they always have to do a "celebrity" version of EVERYTHING?!. The problem in my opinion is it oversaturates the appetite for the concept. Especially with the regular version running on Ch4 literally right behind the celebrity version. I dont know. I guess my preference is less is more.
I'd hate to see the UK version get cancelled because the audience is tired of it.



(Still unintentionally hilarious)

If Channel 4 cancelled The Circle, it would end up on Netflix ASAP

Would it? Because Netflix have filmed all of the international series in Salford, meaning the cost of C4 & Netflix together must make the set up affordable?