Hey everyone!
I'm back with daily blogs summarising what happens over the 21 episodes of The Circle UK Series 3! To see what happened everyday on The Circle UK Series 2 and also the first series of The Celebrity Circle, head to the homepage of my blog, type in 'Circle' and hopefully all the old posts come up!
Pictured above: The Circle UK players for Series 3 - who are soon to be introduced!
Above are the screenshots and quotes from each of the players, but I thought I'd summarise what they all said in their introduction video tapes before entering The Circle!
Up first was Manrika who is of Indian heritage and said that if she wins the game, she wondered how much gin and salt and pepper chicken she could buy with £100,000. She added that was a sweet Indian girl but also a wild party animal that doesn't get home till 7am. She wanted to enter the game as herself to get close with people, and said that she 'can tell a fake Linkedin profile from a mile away' as that's part of her job. Manrika also said she would use any catfish information to her advantage and that you have to 'do what you want to get what you want'. She also said that she couldn't remember the last time she was happy and skint
The next player to enter was Hashu (a.k.a 'Syed') who admitted that one of his brothers' jobs is being an entrepreneur and the other is a laywer, adding that his parents were probably disappointed that he's only a content creator. He decided to enter The Circle as restaurant owner Syed, a 63 old man who everyone will react to with 'awww'. The images are of his uncle, and he knows that Syed is a respectable figure, and a sweet old man...but he will be manipulative #HiddenAgenda. Whilst creating his profile he said 'I need to be Syed, breathe Syed!' Tally was the third player to enter the game as herself. She admitted that when she was younger she was bullied for being an ugly child, with freckles, glasses and white skin. She stated that she is now a GP receptionist and thinks that using Instagram to post her glam pictures is contradictory to her thoughts, as she views other people's perfect pictures admitting 'I don't like you'. She explained that no amount of likes will make you feel better about yourself, so she wanted to go into The Circle will no filters or facetune, admitting that her personality is banging, and that it will win everyone over.
Vithun was the next player to enter the game! He's an accountant from London, and he said he wanted to outsmart everyone in The Circle, as it's a numbers game. He described himself as being the least desirable person and hopefully that would mean people wouldn't think he was a catfish. He said he was in choir at school and has dressed up in a lot of fancy dress outfits include a cat, an elf and even Where's Wally?!. His friends say that he's competitive, but also he will probably be the dirtiest player in the game. Vithun also said that if he was the first Asian to win a civillian game show in this country, that would be amazing. He added 'if anyone wins, it's iconic, if I win, it's historic!'. The next catfish was James (a.k.a 'Gemma') entering the game as an NHS nurse, but known in the real world as 'Hunter' who appeared on Gladiator. He admitted that being 6'3 and having a bodybuilder physique would mean that he's often quite intimidating, so he wanted to go in as a nurse, who wouldn't be threatening to women, the guys will like her, and if he wins he'll give the money to the NHS. He put Gemma's job title as 'Paediatric nurse' so out with James and in with Gemma!
The next player to enter the game was Billy, who is a 19 year old sports marketing manager who entered as himself! He admits to being a massive mummy's boy and overly obsessed with trainers, owning over 70...but added that he wouldn't be able to see anyone's trainers in The Circle. Billy added that his gameplan was to make sure every conversation goes his way and he will do anything to win. Yolanda (a.k.a 'Chris') was the next player to enter The Circle. Yolanda is playing the game as her 29 year old husband called Chris, stating that he's sexy, yummy, gorgeous, and there's nothing not to love about him! She added that he's chilled, approachable adn easy to get along with. Yolanda said that she's competitive, and failure is a word not in her vocabulary. She added that she would use Chris' friendly and approachable look to lure people in, and then Yolanda will strike! Andy was the next player to enter the game. He introduced himself as a company director who has since founded some of his own companies and a shop. He says that his unfiltered mind lives through his son, and that morality and integrity are number 1. He finished his video tape with 'let's go hunt some catfish!'.
The final player to enter The Circle was Penny. Jamie & Millie (a.k.a 'Penny') are father and daughter who say they have a good relationship, but admit that Jamie is like a housewife. They both discussed that they wantPenny's character to be fun, bubbly, warm and sassy, and that she's got a massive crush on Gary Barlow! Millie said that she will be bringing the fun and the flirting, whilst Jamie is bringing age maturity and experience. Millie adds that she hates most of her Dad's previous partners, saying that Penny is his future wife and also a perfect stepmum to her...but she said 'shame she doesn't exist'.
All 9 of the players; Manrika, Syed, Tally, Vithun, Gemma, Billy, Chris, Andy and Penny were all able to view the other player profiles and give their first opinions on their competitors. Manrika said that she expected to be the only Asian but was happy there were other peop,e similar to her, and admitted that she instantly liked Billy because he looked cute. Andy said that he seemed to be suspicious of Billy being a catfish, purely because he has a dog and Tally's initial thought was that Penny doesn't look real. Syed was first to post in The Circle chat, with Vithun thinking that his parents wouldn't know what the word 'banter' meant, so unsure how an older man would. Chris described Manrika as a 'walking holiday' to which Syed also said he liked the look of. Gemma said that he wanted to approach Andy with caution, as he wanted to find out what 'NHS season ticket holder' meant on his profile, with both Andy and Tally saying that they would love to have a chat with Gemma. Manrika thought that Chris' bio was boring and Gemma shouted 'Chris Chris Chris, are you a catfish Chris?'.
To get the players settled in, The Circle threw out some quickfire questions to get them all talking. Up first was 'what animal would you be?' which Gemma replied with 'something flexible' and Andy coming out with a slug...admitting that if the other players asked him why, he's just say he likes eating lettuce and Vithun said he would be a reindeer because he liked delivering presents. The other question was 'the worst thing you lied about' to which Vithun replied with the fact that he 'lied about height to be considered as a sperm donor' and Penny said that she told her ex boyfriend that she loved him...and with those remarks, the chat was closed! Vithun stated that 'some people are sticking out and others are fading', and it was over to all of the players to rate eachother from 1st to 8th based on first impressions. Billy put Vithun at the top, purely because of his Where's Wally? outfit and the fact that he seemed to have banter. Vithin chose Andy in 1st place due to him standing out in the group chat and Tally thought that she would also go with Vithun as the highest rated player as she was 'playing tactically' and realised that she shouldn't be a threat to him. When it came to some of the lower ratings, Manrika put Tally 7th as she saw her as the biggest threat, Gemma decided to put Vithun in 8th place, purely for the fact that he was a likeable person whilst Andy placing Penny low on the board due to her age. Tally said that she wasn't ready to leave The Circle yet, but let's see what happened in the ratings results!
Andy decided to start a private chat with NHS nurse Gemma in order to build a friendship, and opened up about losing his bowel at 18 years old, adding that he felt confident to come and speak to Gemma as she's a nurse and would probably understand his situation. After a little chat, Gemma said that she 'needs to get a girls chat going soon' and Andy felt like he was able to gather some good information! Billy also decided to create a group with the boys; Andy, Chris (who's actually Yolanda), Syed (who's actually Hashu) and Vithun and named it 'no girls allowed'. Andy put a message saying that he could finally add some banter into the lads chat with Vithun messaging soon after, asking what brought everyone to The Circle. Syed replied and said that his daughter wanted him to be on the show as she is a fan, but he wants to win the money - and Hashu has taken on the persona of an older man who's first language isn't English, so there are some grammatical errors in his sentences, on purpose! Billy also asked the other guys if they had their eyes on any of the girls, with Vithun replying 'my name autocorrects to Virgin, so I'm not sure if I am the best person to ask' with Chris adding that Vithun must definitely be real.
We found out the first round of ratings, and below is how the players were ranked;
9th: Penny
8th: Syed
6th: Manrika & Tally
4th: Vithun & Chris
3rd: Andy
2nd: Billy
1st: Gemma
...it was revealed that only Gemma would become an infuencer, and she had to choose somebody to be blocked from The Circle immediately! Millie a.k.a 1/2 of Pennys said that she hadn't even worn all of her outfits and Tally hoped that it wasn't her otherwise she would cry her eyes out. Chris added that he rated her number 1 so he would be angry if Gemma blocked him, and Vithun added that he thinks the girls are safe! Gemma discussed that she wanted to befriend the girls, she liked Andy as he's the only 1-1 chat she's had and she also wanted to keep Syed. Gemma explained that Vithun was a big threat and very popular, but that it would seem as an odd choice for 'sweet little Gemma' and also added that she wasn't sure if Chris was real and she hasn't had any interactions with Billy. Gemma said she would either block Vithun, Chris or Billy...and in the end, she said that 'the person I have decided to block, is...CHRIS!
As per usual with this game, Chris was blocked from the game, but he was able to go and visit one of the other players...Once he got into Syed's apartment (who he wanted to go and see), there was nobody there, apart from Emma Willis who appeared on the screen in front of him (or her, because Yolanda's persona of 'Chris' didn't last very long, so he needs to go!). Yolanda said 'what's happening?' and Emma revealed to her that at this current moment, the other players all think that 'Chris' has been blocked from The Circle, but Yolanda was able to clone one of the other players and re-enter once again. The players wouldn't know which of the two profiles was first created, and which one was the clone...so it's definitely going to be interesting to see what happens in tomorrow's show!
If you're watching along with this series of the show, don't hesitate to comment below who your current favourites are and also share this blog post with your friends so if they're not watching the show, they can stay updated with the drama and action (that I am able to summarise into a blog post!). Episode 2, coming soon!
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