# Catfish: The TV Show (2012)

> Hosts Nev Schulman and Max Joseph travel to meet people whose online romances may be built on fake identities.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/42481

## Facts

- Seasons: 9
- Episodes: 245
- Episode runtime: 42 min
- Status: Canceled
- Genres: reality
- Created by: Max Joseph, Nēv Schulman, Ariel Schulman
- Network: MTV
- Cast: Nēv Schulman, Kamie Crawford, Max Joseph, Jane Carrey, Rich Dollaz, Nick Young, Rashad Jennings, Zeke Thomas
- TMDB rating: 7.1/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2498968/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: brisk
- Intensity: moderate
- Complexity: simple
- Violence: none
- Tone: tense, sympathetic, suspenseful, voyeuristic, bittersweet

## What critics say

Audiences find the series mixed, with early seasons rated middling and the middle seasons rated highest before a sharp drop in season six.

## Synopsis

Catfish: The TV Show (2012-2024) is an American reality series created by Max Joseph, Nev Schulman and Ariel Schulman for MTV. Hosted by Nev Schulman alongside co-host Max Joseph and later Kamie Crawford, the show follows people who have formed relationships with partners met online and are unsure whether the person on the other end is real. The engine of each episode is a investigation: the hosts travel to the home town of the mysterious match, track down the person behind the profile, and confront the truth in person. Each episode is built around a single case, with guest co-hosts appearing occasionally, and the format carries across nine seasons across a span of over a decade of broadcast. It is a case-of-the-week unscripted format rather than a continuing story, and its nine seasons vary in quality and momentum. The tone mixes hopeful romance with uneasy dread, as viewers watch emotional stakes rise and collapse. Fans of Dateline NBC and reality investigations of personal deception will find its blend of sympathy and exposure familiar, and its digital-age preoccupations resonate with the contemporary internet documentary landscape.

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