After 12 weeks of intense competition, the season 2 winner of Netflix’s hit experimental social media game show, The Circle, has been announced. Although she portrayed her husband Trevor as a catfish, Deleesa Carrasqullio played such a brilliant game that she emerged victoriously in the end. For her devious duplicity, Deleesa earned the $100,000 grand prize.
But while the series revolves around gaining popular votes from your fellow circle mates in order to avoid being blocked and stave off elimination, the most popular players don’t necessarily win the game. For a more detailed breakdown, here are the most popular players of season 2 sorted by their collective household ratings.
10 Lance (Lisa)
Despite posing as the most popular person outside of the Circle by far, pop star Lance Bass (Lisa Delcampo) never rated higher than 5th place during his time inside of it. Other than River (Lee), none of the contestants really believed Lance was playing as himself.
As a late addition to the cast, Lance had little time to make connections and forge alliances in the circle. As such, Lance was voted in 5th place during his first eligible vote in week 6 before being voted dead last in week 8. The latter vote got Lance blocked and eliminated from contention.
9 Mitchell
While Mitchell may have lasted slightly longer than his mother Tammy and brother Ed in season 1, he failed to curry favor among his circle mates and never received a rating higher than the 5th spot.
Although he opened up and made a bond with Khat during his time in the circle, Mitchell’s self-admitted lack of strategy earned him fifth place votes in both week 8 and week 1o, before his ultimate blockage.
8 Terilisha
After the first week in The Circle, Terelisha appeared to be a major force to be reckoned with. Along with the intelligent Savannah, Terelisha was named one of the Influencers after garnering a second-place rating during the inaugural rankings.
However, Terelisha suffered a major fall from grace by being voted in the last place for two consecutive weeks. With Courtney putting a target squarely on her back, the cool substitute math teacher could not maintain the popularity she found in the first two weeks. As a result, she was blocked after coming in sixth place in week 6.
7 Savannah
Much like Terilisha, Savannah Palacio experienced the absolute highs and lows of The Circle‘s popular rating system. After being named the top Influencer to be ranked in first place during the show’s inaugural rankings, she experienced quite the drop-off.
After attempting to smooth her rocky relationships with Terilisha and Emily, Savannah’s popularity began to decrease. Deemed a serious threat to win by the other contestants, Savannah’s rankings fell all the way to 6th place by week 4, one spot from the bottom.
6 Khat
Fortunes change at the drop of a hat in The Circle, and Khat Bell can tell you why. The ultra-competitive pro volleyball player entered the Circle with quite a bang. After entering the apartment in week 5, she spent three weeks increasing her visibility and gaining more alliances.
During her first time involved in the voting, Khat earned enough votes to rank #2 in the Circle. As such, she shared her Influencer status with Chloe (who was ranked #1). However, after only really making a bond with Mitchell, Khat alienated the others to the tune of sixth and last place vote in week 10, and she was blocked as a result.
5 Emily (Jack)
Despite playing the sideline and avoiding engagement with the other players, Emily (Jack) ranked in the middle of the pack in terms of popularity. The 20-year-old played the game as catfish Emily, fooling the others until he epically failed at applying credible makeup to a doll.
In the very first voting round, Emily landed at a penultimate 6th place. However, she upped her stock tremendously by week 4 when she was voted #2 in the house and became an Influencer. The next time out, Emily dropped down to 4th place in week 6 and 7th place by week 8, leading to her ultimate blockage.
4 Courtney
Aside from the two high-profile catfish, Courtney arguably played the best game in The Circle 2. He not only managed to keep his identity as the Joker a secret, but he also garnered his fair share of popular votes throughout the season.
After tying with River in week 1, Courtney fell slightly to 5th place in week 4. However, he jumped all the way up to 2nd place in week 6, sharing his Influencer role with River. Add in another 5th place in week 8 finish and a 4th place finish in week 10, and there’s no wonder why Courtney made it to the final three.
3 River (Lee)
As someone who’d been catfishing readers under a female pen name for years, River (Lee Swift) had a firm grasp on how to trick people. Throughout his time in The Circle, River never ranked lower than 4th place.
River maintained his biggest alliance with Courtney throughout the season, which helped him tremendously. After tying with Courtney for 4th place in week 1, River held strong at #4 for weeks until he was named an Influencer by episode 6. After two more 3rd place finishes in weeks 8 and 10, River was named the secret Influencer at one point as was solely able to choose a player to block.
2 Trevor (Deleesa)
The most advantageous popularity ranking to own in The Circle lies somewhere between 3 and 5. This way you aren’t too popular to have a target put on you, nor too close to the bottom to be blocked.
Trevor (Deleesa) stayed in this sweet spot all the way to the $100,000 grand prize. After garnering 3rd place for six weeks straight, Trevor slightly dipped to 4th place by week 8. With a major bounce back to 2nd place and Influencer status in week 10, Trevor managed to keep her true identity hidden long enough to be crowned champion.
1 Chloe Veitch
Parlaying her Too Hot To Handle popularity, no player earned more 1st place votes in The Circle 2 than British reality star Chloe Veitch. In four consecutive rating events spanning from episode 4 to episode 10, Chloe remained ranked as the #1 Influencer.
Of course, by week 12, Chloe was also named runner-up of the entire competition, giving way to Trevor (Deleesa), her in-house crush, to take home the top prize. Whether the other players thought she was authentic or not, Chloe earned the most popular votes.
