‘The Circle’ as described on the Channel 4 website is ‘A brand new reality show in which players compete through a unique social media platform’. The show, hosted by Maya Jama and Alice Levine, started on the 18th September. The final aired live on Monday evening, 8th October.
A total of 15 contestants featured on the show all trying to win the prize of £50,000. During the final it was revealed to the players that viewers had also been voting for their favourite player. The viewers player would walk away with a prize of £25,000.
The idea behind it was simple. Contestants could design the most popular profile, catfish or not, to become the ultimate popular person. Every so often players would vote on who they wanted to save and who they wanted to block. The blocked players were all removed from ‘The Circle’ and new players joined.
It was up to the contestants what they put on the social media platform with some going all out in a fake profile and some just hiding parts of their personality.
Meet The Finalists:
This post is in collaboration with Elle Goes Global, she will discuss Sian and Dan’s profiles and their Circle experience. Here I will discuss Freddie and Alex’s experiences… Oh, I mean Kate!
All four finalists were players who featured in the first episode of the show which made the final even nicer for viewers too.
Freddie:
Age: 20
From: Essex
Relationship status: Single
Playing as:
Himself but playing it straight.
Freddie is an energetic, loud and straight-talking call centre worker from Essex. He’s openly gay and has a habit of going after straight guys – he always wants what he can’t have.
He feels people make assumptions about him based on his sexuality, so he’s planning to see if he can win as an altered version of himself.
Freddie will be “playing it straight”- using his own profile photos and being himself, with the exception that he is changing his sexuality.
(Information sited from: https://inews.co.uk/culture/television/the-circle-cast-contestants-channel-4-game-show/)
Freddie’s Circle Experience:
From the beginning it was clear to see that Freddie was a character. He certainly was the energetic, loud and straight-talking individual he was described to be. Throughout ‘The Circle’ Freddie managed to conceal his true sexuality with only Harry picking up on signs and thinking he may be lying. His straight-talking nature meant that he clashed with certain individuals, specifically Alex / Kate and viewers of the program will never forget that painting.
Without Freddie in ‘The Circle’ it would have certainly been quieter. I won’t lie numerous times I did hit the volume button and wished that he’d stop screaming for just a moment. But, without him it wouldn’t have been right, he created a lot of the drama which ensued with Alex / Kate, he named Dan ‘Direct Dan’ and would always speak his mind. No matter the consequences. A firm friendship with ‘bestie’ Sian meant that Freddie’s fate was secured on several occasions. He also formed a firm friendship with Scotty and Ryan (at one point) which helped him too.
Towards the end of the show Freddie realised he needed to befriend Dan and Alex / Kate to secure his final spot. Dan was a continually highly rated player and his allegiance to Alex / Kate was clear. Despite this new found friendship, Sian remained his number one girl and he always believed that Kate was not Kate.
Freddie made his final ratings clear, he couldn’t vote ‘nicely’ as he had to ensure he came out on top. This failed and Freddie walked away empty handed but the viewers certainly still loved him!
Alex / Kate:
Age: 26
From: London
Relationship status: Girlfriend of two years.
Playing as: Kate.
Alex carved out his early career as one of the content producers for UNILAD and worked his way up through social marketing before launching his own comedy and memes account.
He has 400k+ fans globally across different platforms. He lives and breathes social media.
He’s already made a huge success for himself online and wants to see if he can do it again starting a social media profile from scratch. Alex… has decided to play the game using the photos of someone he thinks has the potential to be even more likeable than he is – his girlfriend.
(Information sited from: https://inews.co.uk/culture/television/the-circle-cast-contestants-channel-4-game-show/)
Alex / Kate’s Circle Experience:
Meet Kate, to the circle players Kate was Kate but to the home viewers Kate was Alex. Confusing? I know. Accompanied with his best friend, his little black book, Alex played the game from the off as a woman named Kate. He adopted everything from her ideas, beliefs and opinions but made sure he stayed away from major controversy and on the fence so as not to give the game away!
Almost immediately Kate had a connection with fellow player Dan, who was also a finalist. They bonded and became friends which subsequently led to Dan especially ensuring that Kate remained in the game. A Little Mix sized mix up made suspicion grow in Freddie and Ryan but neither of them had any sort of proof. It was only until the end that friend Dan began to believe that maybe not everything is as it seems. That Kate’s photographs seemed too good to be true!
Throughout the program we saw Alex struggle, especially when Dan asked if he was a catfish out right, it was obvious from the audience he didn’t like lying.
A few bumps along the road came with Sian too but ultimately all three fellow finalists said even if Kate wasn’t ‘real’ they like whoever it is behind Kate. Dancing around in his dressing gown, painting his nails and wearing high heels made Alex an incredibly popular character with viewers. That being said, it’s safe to say during that meeting with Dan, Alex wished more than anything that he actually was a woman called Kate.
Alex openly said on the final show that he voted a 1 for Sian and Freddie and a 2 for Dan. Alex walked away as both the player’s champion and the viewers’ player too meaning he is now £75,000 richer!
Go Kate!
The Results: My thoughts:
The eagle eyed readers will have already noted that Alex or Kate walked away with both cash prizes. Much to the shock of him and those watching. My immediate reaction to those results was that of celebration. Alex was my favourite from the beginning and the fact that he risked so much and succeeded made it even better. Alex went in aiming to create the ultimate popular player which quite clearly he has done, whether you dispute the results or not.
Yes, Dan’s vote probably did sway it for him but at the end of the day the others kept Kate in for a reason. They kept Kate in, choosing to block Scotty and Harry. Even when they suspected she may be fake. That says a lot in my eyes. It also leads me perfectly into my next point – the ‘being fake gets you far’ comments which riddled Twitter last night. Yes, Kate was a catfish. Yes, Alex did deceive people by pretending to be someone he wasn’t. BUT, everything else about Alex was genuine, he showed his true self and it was clear to see the deception did not come easy to him. The results in my opinion were as they were because Sian and Freddie messed it up for themselves. They chose to vote tactically and if they hadn’t then maybe they would have won the players prize.
Alex deserves the viewers player prize as the viewers loved him as a character and individual for all of his quirks. He also deserves in my eyes the player prize too, everyone had the option to play as themselves or as a fake person. He played the game and he was rewarded!
To Conclude:
I do not understand those who say he doesn’t deserve it and the show is sending a message to be a catfish. I didn’t get that message at all. Instead, I took away the message which so many of us chose to ignore. That it is SO easy to NOT know who you are actually talking to online. You have to BE CAREFUL. Someone can easily pretend to be someone they’re not. Just look how upset and hurt Dan was when he found out the truth about Kate?
To those angry that someone else didn’t win – would you have felt the same if Sian or Freddie had won? After all, they were fake too. Dan was the only one who stayed true to himself throughout – oh, and Fiji of course.
Maybe Channel 4 will take a look at the way the final decision is made for future series. Many believed informing them that the last rating was the last, meant that they voted tactically which skewed the results. I agree, it wasn’t a case of who was popular it was everyone sacrificing others to ensure they won. Look how that turned out. Regardless, I am extremely happy that Alex was crowned. I can only hope that more series are made in the future and that my favourite on-screen friendship between Alex and Dan, rekindles. I wholeheartedly believe that each and every one of the finalists will go far in the future and I wish them luck!
If you’ve enjoyed this post and watched the series why not let me know in the comments.
Be sure to also check out Elle’s blog post here for her take on the other two finalists.
[…] This post is written in collaboration with Imogen about the four finalists on The Circle. My post focusses on Dan and Sian whilst Imogen writes about the winner Kate/Alex and Freddie head over to read more on them here. […]
I loved this series SO much and to me it was such a unique concept and something so relevant to us who live in a social media focused world. I’m so happy Alex won the peoples vote because he was so likeable and so funny! I’m also happy he won the 50k prize too and i agree that dan’s vote probably did sway it and feel like maybe sian should’ve won because overall she was the most popular amongst the players really. however i was still so happy with the end result!
Thanks so much for your comment! Totally agree, maybe next year they will change how the most popular person is decided as in the final vote it was all done tactically to save themselves! x
Sounds interesting! I’ll try to watch it if it ends up on streaming.
You definitely should!
After reading these posts from you and Elle, I’m seriously hoping I can find these episodes online! I don’t even care that I know who won.
That’s so kind! I hope you can find them as it was honestly such an addictive series! Want some more episodes now!
I was absolutely obsessed with The Circle – I’d love to go on as a contestant. I loved Kate/Alex in there, catfishing is all part of the game, it is the whole point of the show that you don’t quite know who is hiding behind their screen!
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It was awesome wasn’t it? I would love to go on too – would you be yourself? Exactly! Thankfully I think Alex and Dan have made up so all is right again!
I would be myself I think – I reckon I’d be a bit of a Sian!
I enjoyed the cat-fishing (in a non weird way) but definitely think being yourself is best!
I had never heard of this show before, but it sounds kind of interesting.
It really was good, really highlighted the dangers of social media and how you can never truly know if someone is being genuine!
This show sounds like so much fun! Loved reading the write ups on each player. I wish we had this series in Sweden! We do get some shows from the UK, hopefully The Circle will air here soon! x
Thank you so much, Netflix have said they want to do a series like it – if you have that in Sweden maybe one day you’ll get to enjoy it too! X
Love this post! The Circle was a really interesting idea. I didn’t manage to watch all of it but I was really intrigued when it first started. Some of it was so hilarious! Great post 🙂 x
Thank you so much! It definitely was, they’ll all go far! x
So great of you to share this. I had never heard of this show. It really is fascinating to see what a group of people will do when put to challenges!
Thank you, it really was, especially as half of them were true to themselves and didn’t put up a persona! They had no idea! x
Loved watching the circle soooo much. This made me miss it so much
It was so good, wasn’t it? Did you watch the final uncovered episode?