ALERT!

The Circle ended on Channel 4 last night with some impressive ratings (and by that I mean TV viewership ratings, not those in-game ratings that gave us a truly surprising result).

According to the Channel 4 Press feed on Twitter, it managed 1.1 million viewers on average; not too shabby considering it didn’t actually finish until close to midnight. It’ll be interesting to see how far that number rises when the consolidated catch-up data is added further down the line.

The overnight figure was 9.4% of the TV viewing public at the time, and represented a huge 67% increase on the final from last year. It also had the largest share of 16-34 year-olds of any channel, with 26.1% – double the amount Channel 4 gets on average in that particular slot.

So… does the fact that Channel 4 are proudly showing off the numbers bode well for a third series?

The show has been a really interesting case study in how to measure a broadcast series’ success in 2019: its numbers have never been almighty (Love Island, for comparison, averaged 5.6 million, albeit including catch-up and in an earlier timeslot – though it was on ITV2). But it has had incredibly dedicated viewers who have talked about it AT LENGTH on social media, and this week in particular – with all the Sammie escapades – has kept it right towards the top of Twitter’s top trends.

International versions are due soon, and the production company are registering interest from contestants for a season three, but it doesn’t seem to be officially green-lit just yet.

Deadline ran an interesting article on it earlier in the week.