Broadcasting talents Alice Levine and Maya Jama have signed up to present Channel 4’s bold new reality series The Circle. The game begins this autumn and players will have the license to be whoever they want to be to win the ground breaking social media popularity contest.

It’s the first time that the two women have presented together and, as both are key social media influencers, they make the perfect partnership to lead viewers into The Circle.

Alice said: “Social media is now such a dominant and prominent part of our lives that it’s hard to think about how we took that first step. Getting rid of everything; the dubious photos, the ill-advised midnight comments, the questionable quotes-on-a-sunset and starting from scratch, without a trace, isn’t really an option. But that’s exactly what our players can do. It’s going to be fascinating to see where they start from and where they take their brand new profiles to try and win The Circle. It’s exciting to be involved in such a timely show, plus, now getting sucked into an Instagram vortex is necessary ‘research’.

Maya said: “Social media is such a huge part of everyone’s lives, twitter, Instagram, facebook – there is no escaping it nowadays. I’m so excited to be a part of the first ever reality show which plays around with this – The Circle will show how each players’ mind works, contestants will start with a fresh social media page - viewers will get to see what really makes people popular and how far players will go to become the most influential in the game.

Social media has radically changed the way we make friends, assess popularity, conduct relationships, argue and even fall in love, but how truthful are our internet identities? And what are we prepared to do to be popular, when others can’t see who we really are? In The Circle, players from all walks of life will compete to win up to £50,000. All living in one modern block but separately in individual apartments, the players can only interact with one another through a voice-activated social media platform called The Circle.
The Circle will enable them to chat, become friends, argue, compete against each other in physical and mental games and challenges and maybe even fall in love. Building their own brand new online profiles, players will only get to know each other from what they choose to reveal via The Circle.

Communicating as a group or individually, cliques will form and private allegiances will be made as players rate each other based purely what is in their profiles – never really knowing if the information they have is the whole truth or a persona that’s been created to try and win. Whoever is liked the least runs the risk of being ‘blocked’ and removed and only when someone is 'blocked' will the other players be given the chance to finally find out who they have been interacting with as they will come face to face for the first time. Will they turn out to be who they said they were? How will each member of The Circle play the game and stay popular and will the other players believe their hype?

The Circle is produced by Studio Lambert and Motion Content Group for Channel 4.