Emma Willis "hated" ‘Big Brother’ being "compared to a game".
The 43-year-old TV presenter hosted the reality TV show from 2013 until it was axed last year, but she used always to see the programme as "a social experiment" rather than a game show, unlike ‘The Circle’, which is now presenting.
She said: "I know there’s this kind suggestion it is just a replacement for Big Brother for me but I view it quite differently.
"The thing with ‘Big Brother’ is that for me, I always viewed it with the purist mentality, it was a social experiment. That is always how I watched ‘Big Brother’.
"But this, I very much watch it as a game. I hated ‘Big Brother’ being compared to a game, but this is clearly a game with the interaction of people, how they’ll react in certain scenarios and then seeing who is going to be themselves and who is going to play it to try and be the most popular and win that money."
‘The Circle’ is based around a reality setting in which contestants each live alone in an apartment and can only interact with each other via The Circle, a social media-type chat system, in a bid to become the most popular person and win £100,000.
And Emma admits the programme is perhaps not as naughty as ‘Big Brother’ because the contestants don’t meet, and she insists they have to adapt during the series because they may start getting second thoughts about lying in a bid to win the prize money.
He added: "It is PG. But there are certain conversations that might happen that I wouldn’t want my 10 year old to be watching! She probably needs to be a little bit older for this.
"What’s brilliant to watch is seeing if people go in with one objective and that is to win the money and then does their conscience kick in?
"Are they’re like, ‘I literally can’t do this, I’m lying to them and I can’t do this anymore.’ Then they might switch again and remember it’s for a hundred grand.
"It’s for the money that, to an extent, drives that decision. It’s like ‘Big Brother’ in the sense you can go in thinking, ‘I can do this, I can win this money.’
"And then you get into that situation and soon realise you don’t actually want to win anymore and get out.
"Or, start by thinking, ‘I’m going to lie my whole way along and then, do you know what? I can’t lie anymore.’ This is a massive game at the end of the day so you need your tactics but you also need to adapt."
Emma Willis ‘hated’ Big Brother game comparison
