When people were forced to interact in the Big Brother house, without any privacy or connection to the outside world, chaos and entertainment inevitably ensued.

Big Brother launched reality television – an industry that has expanded exponentially over the last few years.

The reality television model has three recurrent forms. A family or group of people is followed around as they go about their daily lives, a group of people compete with each other using specialised skills, or a group of strangers are locked in a house together and forced to interact.

The Circle, according to the Telegraph, is “for better and for worse, the most Millennial reality series in existence, drowning in emojis, text speak and Snapchat vernacular”.

It takes the ‘locked in a house’ model one step further by introducing our most common form of contemporary communication – the online kind.

A former estate agent, a managing director and the self-proclaimed King Of Tinder (not Shane Warne) are among the contestants trying to win up to £50 000 on the new reality show which premiered this week.

To begin, here’s the trailer:

Basically, a group of people catfish each other online by faking their way to popularity. Sounds like every person who can’t make it through the day without posting their smashed avo on Instagram (because all their friends are doing it).

The idea of catfishing came about because of the 2010 doccie Catfish. A catfish is a person who adopts a fake persona online and uses it to make someone fall in love with them.

The doccie follows Nev, a guy who starts a relationship with a woman via Facebook and email. After Nev figures out that she has been lying about her music career, he decides to track her down, and his friends record his journey. The woman, alias Megan, turns out to be Angela, an older married woman.

If you haven’t already seen it and/or the spin-off series, you’re missing out. Here’s the trailer:

It’s reality TV meets the unreality of virtual reality. Catfish laid bare the dangers of trusting strangers online. The Circle takes it to a whole new level.

Just remember, watching reality shows about horrible people legit makes you a bad person.

[source:telegraph]