The Circle is moving to Hulu after seven seasons on Netflix, and the new version will look and feel different from the one viewers have followed since 2020. Susan House, who executive-produced the Netflix run, will lead the Hulu series, which is being reimagined as a fast-turnaround social experiment with celebrity contestants, civilians and U.S. audience voting.
The shift arrives after Netflix declined to renew the reality competition series when its seventh season ended in October 2024. Hulu has since acquired the show, but a premiere date has not been announced. For fans searching now, that is the news: the game is not ending, but its next chapter will play out on a different platform, with a wider cast and a more immediate way for viewers to shape the outcome.
The Circle built its identity around isolation and reinvention. Contestants move into separate apartments in the same building, communicate through an app using photos and text, and decide whether to present themselves authentically or adopt an entirely different persona. The format first appeared on Channel 4 in the UK, where it ran for three seasons before Netflix launched a U.S. version in 2020 and added six more seasons after that.
That history is part of why the move matters. The series became one of Netflix’s early hits in reality competition, and it later spawned versions in France and Brazil. Now Hulu is pairing the show with Studio Lambert, Motion Entertainment and Omaha Productions, while also giving it a celebrity component that the Netflix version never had. The result is not a simple transfer. It is a reset.
The friction is in the change itself. The original version worked because civilians were playing a carefully sealed game, building alliances and faking identities without outside interference. The Hulu version keeps the isolated-apartment setup, but it adds real-time filming and audience voting in the U.S., which makes the competition more immediate and less insulated from viewers. That can sharpen the stakes, but it also changes the rhythm that made the show distinctive in the first place.
For now, the biggest unanswered question is when Hulu will put the new season on the schedule. The platform has the rights, the producers and the format shift, but not the launch date. Until that arrives, The Circle is in an unusual middle ground: renewed in spirit, reinvented in practice and still waiting for its next doorway to open.
