Channel 4 Axes 'The Circle'

[Brekkie]

A hybrid version would very likely be missing a key ingredient of the UK version: Sophie Willan.

Michelle Buteau is a pretty decent host/narrator though. I would highly recommend both US series on Netflix if you haven't seen them - only about 10 episodes or so in each so it doesn't take long to get through them.

Still think though that although Netflix have clearly financed their Salford base in selling worldwide rights to them they've prevented the show becoming a genuine breakout global hit by not permitting multiple territories to have their own version. They could have cleaned up last year with channels looking for formats where people didn't have to interact.

[gottago]

Still think though that although Netflix have clearly financed their Salford base in selling worldwide rights to them they've prevented the show becoming a genuine breakout global hit by not permitting multiple territories to have their own version. They could have cleaned up last year with channels looking for formats where people didn't have to interact.

To be honest I think this is probably a rare case of Studio Lambert making more money by not selling it worldwide. Unusually they fully produced the three international versions in house rather than licensing it out to production companies worldwide or using All3Media’s companies abroad so that meant they kept the full production fee rather than a much smaller format fee. And as Netflix shows tend to be bigger budget that production fee would have been very substantial and probably made it worth their while. It’s also possible C4 wouldn’t have been able to commit to a second and third series without a partner as they were always going on able how expensive it was even when Netflix were on board. So chances are the UK version would have ended without Netflix’s involvement anyway.

[Brekkie]

The third Netflix series is launching on 8th September, so I guess it was filmed before the second season aired considering the quick return.

[Steve in Pudsey]

I'm enjoying the third series on Netflix, but feel they may have a thing or two to learn about how to show this kind of series. Finishing the current block of episodes on the cliffhanger of a blocking then following up with an autoplay trail for the next batch of episodes - which spoilers who survived the blocking - is not a good look.

[Brekkie]

Agree, though I don't think this series has quite fired in the way the last couple have. Is really interesting though once again seeing basically the same format as the last UK series playing out, especially when they play out differently.