How Long Is Filming for The Circle? Answered

When contestants enter The Circle, it’s like they step into a place where time doesn’t exist. Sure, we can tell if it’s day or night depending on the view outside the windows and whether the players are waking up to another day of alerts, but unlike other reality competition shows, the apartment is held in a timeless limbo. So, how long does it take to film The Circle?

How Long Does Filming Take for The Circle? Answered

The Circle is filmed over the course of three weeks. Compared to The Ultimatum‘s eight-week relationship experiment and The Bachelor‘s nine-week search for love, The Circle sounds like a nice brief stint into the world of reality TV. And the three-week solitude is well worth the chance to win $100,000.

After the release of season 1, Circle creator Tim Harcourt told Decider that filming lasted over three weeks in total. In the same interview, he noted that it only took less than a day for the contestants to become accustomed to using the titular Circle. And now that we’re several seasons in, it’s only natural that “Circle message!” is ingrained into us all.

How Do The Circle Contestants Pass Time During Filming?

The Circle‘s episodes are consistently loud and eventful, keeping up the energy from start to finish. We’ve seen contestants get interrupted mid-workout, making dinner, or even while taking a calming bath. It’s a pretty unconventional way to live for three weeks.

So, do they ever get downtime from all the alliance-forming and catfish-hunting activities? The answer is definitely yes. In a Reddit AMA on the show’s subreddit, Season 5 contestant and stand-up comedian Tom Houghton revealed that there were a “few hours of downtime” each day. And in the case of evening games, you’d get more. He also noted that the quiet would allow his brain to race with insecurities about gameplay, edits, and more.

According to Season 2 contestant Deleesa St. Agathe, they didn’t have access to a calendar or clock either. She told Business Insider that she had no concept of time inside The Circle, making it impossible to tell how far they’d gotten on the three-week schedule.

That’s how long it takes to film The Circle. The show is currently available to stream on Netflix.