The latest contestant to be ousted from The Circle has said he will continue to watch the series and hopes Vithun will win.
Sports marketing manager Billy, 19, from Essex, became the latest person to be sent home on the Channel 4 reality show, after an elaborate plot which saw catfish Gemma turn the others against him to get him voted out.
After leaving the show, Billy told the PA news agency: “It’s gutting. Everyone wants to go to the end but literally what can you do, the aim of the game is to get people out and to win and it was just my turn.”
Contestants on the show live in a block of flats and communicate online without ever meeting face-to-face, meaning they can adopt fake identities and “catfish” one another.
Gemma is actually strength and conditioning coach James, who was Hunter on the hit 1990s TV show Gladiators.
He is catfishing the other contestants by pretending to be NHS nurse Gemma.
Billy said: “I never thought for a second it was a catfish, I really didn’t. He played it so well. And the thing is with playing a nurse, I’m not that clued up with that sort of thing so there was nothing I could question him on and be like ‘You’re wrong, I’ve caught you there.”
It's game over for one of these Players in ONE HOUR. Will 'Gemma' take out her target, or will Billy live to play another day? 🎮#TheCircle pic.twitter.com/b3TotAirm2
— The Circle (@C4TheCircle) March 24, 2021
Asked if he regrets going in as himself and not adopting a fake persona, he said: “If you give me a hundred goes I’d be myself a hundred times. I’d never change what I said, who I spoke to or anything because I was myself and every question I was asked I answered as myself, so I’m not going to sit here disheartened.
“If I went in as a catfish and this happened I’d sit there and go why didn’t I make my catfish like this, why didn’t I say this, why didn’t I do this, and now I’m just like, listen, I did that because I was me.”
He has tipped 23-year-old accountant Vithun to win the series.
The Circle continues at 10pm on Channel 4.