Lance Bass just entered Netflix’s The Circle. Sort of

Lance Bass

Netflix announced Lance Bass would be entering hit reality show The Circle – but all wasn’t quite as it seemed.

The NSYNC singer appeared in a trailer for season two of The Circle, which sees contestants play as themselves – or someone else – in a social media-style popularity competition.

For those wondering if Lance Bass would sing “bye bye bye” if he were blocked, got some bad news for you.

The Circle’s Lance Bass is actually a catfish, with his personal assistant of 14 years, Lisa Delcampo, playing him in the game.

 

Lance Bass, ‘huge fan’ of The Circle, urged his assistant to take part

Delcampo will be impersonating the 41-year-old in the series, which sees contestants move into the same building, but live in separate apartments and communicate only through a social media network – The Circle.

Bass told Billboard that Delcampo “knows me better than I know myself”.

“We’re both huge The Circle  fans,” he said.

“So when she had the opportunity to audition, I was like, ‘You have to do this,’ not knowing she was going to go in as me.

“I thought it was brilliant. If there’s anyone who would be able to play as me, the only person that could do that is Lisa.”

Netflix’s The Circle is an American spin-off of the British show of the same name, which airs on Channel 4. Throughout the series, players chat over instant messenger and rate one another – the lowest-rated gets “blocked” (booted out of the show). At the end, the most popular contestant wins a $100,000 prize.

This kind of “social experiment game”, Bass and Delcampo said, was a perfect fit for them.

“I have a lot of friends in England,” Delcampo said.

Lance Bass pulling his jacket aside to show the 'Tearin' Up My Heart' message on his t-shirt

Lance Bass. (Getty)

“My friend was like, ‘You have to see this show called The Circle and he explained it to me and I was like: ‘I do not understand that at all’.

“So I watched the first couple of episodes and I was like: ‘Oh my God, I’m hooked. This is crazy’.

“I knew because we watch a lot of reality competition shows, Lance would fall in love with it and he did.”

Bass himself hasn’t watched the new season with Delcampo in yet, but he’s looking forward to tuning in.

“I’m excited to watch because I don’t even know if she’s won or how far she has gotten,” he said. “I’ll be surprised just as much as everybody else.”

But if Bass were to ever join The Circle, he said he’d catfish fellow NSYNC star Justin Timberlake: “I’d have to pick someone I know so much about that I’d be able to answer their questions,” he said.