The archive · Content & Film · Product decision · 2018
The Circle: reality TV via social platform, 49.4% 16-24 share
Reality show where contestants only chat via closed social network; Netflix bought format for local versions.
Channel 4 · Studio Lambert
What it had to solve
Tim Harcourt of Studio Lambert wanted to make a reality show about social media: not discussing social interaction, but making social interaction itself the game, while also requiring low-cost, fast-to-produce fixed-camera filming.
How it works
In September 2018, Channel 4 launched The Circle, a social reality show described by the media as a modern version of Big Brother. Multiple contestants lived in the same apartment building but had never met offline: the only communication channel was a closed voice social platform, The Circle, where contestants used self-selected personas to send messages, join group chats and rate one another; those with the lowest popularity were banned, and the winner who lasted to the end took the prize money.
The idea came from Tim Harcourt of Studio Lambert: rather than treating social media as a topic for discussion, it turned its operating logic directly into the show rules—personas, likes, ratings and eliminations all actually happened inside a monitored closed system. Production used 106 fixed cameras, the largest fixed-camera setup for fast-to-produce reality shows in the United Kingdom at the time; contestants in the same building spoke only through an app, naturally creating the dramatic tension of living next door yet being complete strangers.
The first season's live final overnight ratings were only 0.62M (as reported by RadioTimes), but it was Channel 4's most popular new factual entertainment programme among young viewers in 2018: the audience share among 16-24 viewers averaged 49.4%, with more than 10 million on-demand plays on All 4, making it the platform's largest new original debut since 2012; the topic continued to ferment on social media and was seen as Channel 4's successor to Big Brother.
The first season's winner, Alex, competed throughout while posing as a woman named Kate using his girlfriend's photos, proving that deception itself was a highlight. The format was then sold internationally: Netflix partnered with All3Media to produce local versions for the United States, Brazil, France and other places, turning a programme from a small channel in the United Kingdom into a global streaming format.
Why it lands
- Turning the social medium that viewers use every day into the show rules made the cost of understanding zero.
- A closed space plus never meeting created ongoing dramatic suspense at low cost.
- Ratings and bans gave contestants themselves the power to eliminate, with conflict arising from rules rather than scripts.
- The format does not rely on stars or stages, making it naturally transferable to multi-country production.
What it did
It became Channel 4's most popular new factual entertainment programme among young viewers in 2018: the audience share among 16-24 viewers averaged 49.4%, with more than 10 million on-demand plays on All 4; Netflix subsequently announced local versions for the United States, Brazil, France and other places.
What you can take
New formats can use existing mediums as rules; social network logic in closed environment is familiar, controllable, replicable.
Since then
The second season returned in 2019 with an increased number of episodes and introduced weekly live episodes, letting viewers directly participate in and influence the game's progress; the Netflix United States version launched in January 2020, with versions in Brazil, France and other places launched one after another, making The Circle a new paradigm for reality TV in the social era. Channel 4 officially called it one of the most innovative formats in many years, and production company Motion Content Group listed it alongside Love Island as a globally licensed format.
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