Netflix’s hit social media reality competition series The Circle is back for its fourth season. The show’s new installment, which premieres on the streaming app on Thursday, takes place over four weeks. With the contestants communicating to one another behind a black television screen, strategy is put to the test to discover who is real and who is using a masked identity in the form of catfishing in order to win a $150,000 cash prize. This season promises to be spicer than ever.
Michelle Buteau returns to host the fun and flirty game, but she meet the contestants until the finale/reunion. The five contestants who have chosen to play the game as themselves are: Yu Ling Wu, Crissa Jackson, Alyssa Ljubicich, Rachel Evans, and Frank Grimsley. The four who are entering as a catfish are: Josh Brubaker (as Bru), Alex Brizard (as Nathan), John Franklin (as Carol), and Parker Abbott (as Paul). In the end, who will prove whether or not real or fake is what sells?
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Ahead of its premiere, Pop Culture spoke with Yu Ling Wu and Bru about their experience on the show. It’s one they both say they’ll never forget.
PC: Were you guys fans of the show’s previous three seasons?
YL: I actually had not heard about The Circle until my sister and my brother-in-law had told me about it. They were actually the reason I decided to apply to the show. But after I watched season one, I fell in love. I thought it was so fun and super refreshing, and I immediately became a fan.
B: That was the same for me. It was one of those shows that, I think, everyone just fell in love with during the pandemic. It was close to me because it was a family show that we watched. Me and my sister and brother, we loved to watch this show. So we were into it in that. Then when the opportunity came to be on the show, it was like, “Whoa! Oh my gosh. That sounds amazing.” Then when it became a reality of being on it, it was a no-brainer.
How did you guys learn of the opportunity to participate in the show? Was it an open casting? Did you guys have an inside connect? And what made you say, “OK. Yes. I 100% want to participate?”
YL: Like I said before, my sister and my brother-in-law sent me The Circle. They were like, “Hey. You would be so fun on this.” They know that I am literally glued to my phone. They were like, “You’re obsessed with social media. This is right up your alley.” I took a look, and they had applications open online. After the longest time, I was like, “I don’t know. This seems like so much fun.” I’m like, “I love the show, but I don’t know. Thousands of people apply.” I was so reluctant. Every single day, my sister and my brother-in-law would send me these reminder texts that were like, “Reminder. Day 14. You have to apply to The Circle.”
I was working freelance at the time. I think, to be fair, especially during the pandemic, a lot of folks found that the traditional 9-5 model wasn’t working for them. Honestly, I was a little bit unsatisfied with whatever I was doing. I thought, “Why not? Well, let’s just have some fun and see what happens. I’ll just go for it, and whatever happens, happens.” It ended up leading to this moment and just the most incredible experience ever.
B: Everyone had their own individual journey of finding their way on the show. I feel like the luckiest, where it was very easy. I got recruited from Netflix to possibly be on the show. Just reading those DMs, “Hey. Are you interested in possibly doing this?” and being a fan of the show already was really exciting. It wasn’t until maybe the initial convos of how it’s going to work, did a little mock game to see how I would do, and stuff like that. It came to like, “You know what? This would be a blast.”
Eventually, I want to host a show like this someday. So, Netflix, hit me up [for a hosting gig in the future]. That’s the goal. I would love to do something like this. I thought I’d be really good at it, too.
This was one of those once-in-a-lifetime experiences. You get to be on a show and it’s something that ties into your brand perfectly – not even brand, just as I am as a person. I love connecting with people every day. It’s my job anyway to be over to social media. I love connecting with new people every day, so that’s why I was like, “Yeah. Why not?”
You mentioned that you had previously watched the show and were obsessed with it. So knowing what the whole premise of the show is and we’re going to see what strategies you use as the episodes unfold. But watching the show back for the first three seasons, what strategies did you think were best for the contestants: for them to be their real selves, or for them to go into it catfishing the other contestants?
YL: That’s a good question. I feel like I watched the past seasons multiple times just to get in the mindset of the show, and also maybe help inform my own strategy. But I think across the board, you see people like Lisa, she won season two being a catfish. Then Joey won season one just being his genuine self.
I think, at the end of the day, it doesn’t actually necessarily matter what performance you choose to put on in The Circle. You can go in as whoever you’d like to be. That’s maybe the brilliance of the show and the game actually. But I think that, across the board, what really resonates is just a sort of genuineness. It can come through no matter what, and no matter what sort of profile you might hide behind, but there’s a certain energy that really captures people. I think it’s showcasing complexity and multitudes, if you will, just in your gameplay. You have to be willing to adapt, and you have to be willing to read the room and understand the dynamic of the other people that you’re with.
I think that that is a key strategy is just to be able to change your strategy when need be, and also realize that you are working with other people. The name of the game is really just other people. If you know how to connect with people on a genuine level, I think that’ll take you really far.
B: I think it’s really tough to go into the show trying to use a different strategy. There’s only one way you can win. I feel like it’s going to be the way that you want to go about it and how you adapt to things. The person though that I really admired from season one was Shooby. That’s where I draw the most comparison. He went in just being in his absolute most authentic self, and the nice guy. That’s what my mantra was, “I’m going to prove that nice guys can finish first.” That was my goal. Do Shooby justice. I think the twist was that he didn’t have any social media experience. He kind of thought negatively about it, which was so interesting. But I think it provided him with fresh eyes. He didn’t have any bad habits to go into.
On my end, now that I’ve had time to reflect and stuff, I think having a following already of millions of followers, and then having the radio show that I do daily, and connecting with all these people, is that sometimes it’s easy to invest in other people and learn a ton about them. I interview people every day, and I’m getting to know them, but sometimes, you miss out on sharing that part of yourself.
Obviously, everybody is super excited if they were to win a $150,000 cash prize. Going into it, what were your plans with the money if you were to come out as the winner?
YL: Healthcare for one. Too spicy? Too political? I had actually gone into the game knowing that the cash prize – I really wanted to put all that money toward my parents. I’m first-gen. We have a house that we have been trying to pay off for the longest time. Unfortunately, my parents are at a place in their life where they’re no longer able to work. When the pandemic hit, it was so hard for so many people. Especially having parents who work in education, who are teachers to young school kids, and others who are – my dad, who’s retired, it’s difficult.
So I think that motivation to win that money really meant that I would be able to secure the home for my parents, pay off this house that they’ve been trying to pay off for the longest time, and that they just are having a hard time doing. But just knowing that if I were able to pay that whole thing off, they would be able to live a more comfortable life, especially because they have worked their asses off – they’ve worked their butts off to give me such a wonderful life in this country. So that was my plan was to hopefully pay it all off. Then if I had a little bit, would love to just get some health insurance for myself.
B: Very similar to her response. Have you seen gas prices lately? I live in LA. You understand that point. It’s not pretty. No. But oddly enough, I didn’t really think too much about the money going into the show. I’ve always been a very big experience person, and life lessons and all that stuff, so I just thought being a part of this show is going to pay off on its own. [I went in thinking about] getting to experience it, something that most people won’t in their lifetime. So I was so excited to just be a part of it. It wasn’t until you’re getting into the game that you really start and thinking, “Oh wow. It just went up to 150. What could this do?”
I’ll be honest with you. I live pretty modestly, and I grew up in a family that doesn’t have a ton. So the first thing in my mind was the same thing as Yu Ling. My parents worked so hard, just making sure we could be a part of whatever we wanted to as kids, with sports and stuff like that. So being able to throw them a chunk of change. “Go take a vacation. Take a break.” Both my parents still work, and they’re older, so that would be a blessing. My sister goes to college. Paying that off would be, again, another blessing. And I’ll be honest. I have a car that has 300,000 miles right now. It’s a sad look. It’s not pretty in LA. She is in rough shape. So that would’ve been some of the things the money would’ve went into.
Another private passion is a charity. I think one of my goals in life is to start up some Bru Foundation for youth and stuff like that. But that’ll happen, I’m sure.
Do you guys want to do more reality television in the future?
YL: I have actually not given that too much thought, as I’ve been focused about this one coming out. I’m just really excited to experience the launch of The Circle season four, and just to see what it might bring, or what it might not bring. Who knows? I’m open. I have my own things going on, but if there are opportunities out there, mayhaps I will have to go seek them out. I don’t know.
B: I’m going to say probably not. I think I got my feel for social media and just reality TV in general. I’m much more entertained watching it. We’ve all watched the shows and things like Love Is Blind. I am stressed out on the couch [watching those shows]. Going through The Circle, honestly, is so stressful. It was so much fun. But I think having that in my experiences now, I’m good. I would love to focus on hosting something or developing a show like that. But you never know. I’m a never say never guy, so who knows?
