Catfish has delivered many wild and shocking twists over the years, but not everything filmed is fit for television. The series' pop culture legacy is forever cemented, with even shows like 90 Day Fiancé using the term for people using others' identities to find love on the internet. As we wait for news as to when it may return with new episodes on the 2025 TV schedule (or beyond?), host Nev Schulman recalled one of the few times they had to completely dump an episode before it aired.
Schulman was a guest on Josh Peck's Good Guys Podcast, and noted there were two times that Catfish was unable to air an episode they'd shot. The host set the stage by outlining the story, which sounds like it would've been a heartwarming episode had it ever been allowed to air:
We help this young man who lives with his parents outside of Boston. We take him from Boston down to Orlando which is where this guy is. We end up meeting the guy and he's [this] lovely, sweet guy, but he's a big guy. The guy from Boston is so happy he doesn't care...He takes him to Disney World on this incredible date. It was so sweet and it was so heartwarming. I was so excited for this episode to air because it really showcased a side of people and this family in Boston. It just had a lot of interesting things in it.
So many Catfish stories end in sadness, I would love to see one that ends at Disney World where they're riding the Tron Coaster or any one of the great attractions at the parks. Unfortunately, it seems that when your series is based on the acclaimed movie of the same name, it ends on a sour note, the show is cursed to do the same. Or maybe, there's just better odds statistically of catfish stories ending poorly?
As it turns out, nothing in the actual episode itself made it inappropriate to air on MTV. Instead, Nev Schulman continued his story and revealed the episode was pulled because of what happened to one of the participants after filming had completed:
I remember getting called in. We were filming one day they're like, 'Hey, we got bad news [about] the Boston/Orlando episode. We can't air it.' I was like, 'Why?' Apparently the young man who we had helped from Boston at some point after filming and before the episode would've aired, got arrested for public masturbation in some park.
I could've had a hundred guesses for where that story was going, and I would've never came up with that. Nev Schulman didn't get a chance to share the other reason why an episode didn't air, but I'd almost guarantee it wasn't for a wilder reason than that if he didn't lead with another story instead.
That said, Schulman noted that the episode was removed for liability reasons by MTV, and I'm shocked that hasn't happened more with Catfish. I would imagine that a show as controversial as that would have people who participated who either didn't want to be on television after or maybe even pressed charges against the people who catfished them if they had given them money or anything of that sort. For only two episodes to be scrubbed, that seems like a pretty good track record for a show with over 200 episodes.
Catfish was renewed by MTV for new seasons, but there's no word on when those episodes will air. Host Kamie Crawford exited the series in late 2024, so it's possible the show is lining up a new successor to carry the torch on the show as it goes into the future. In any case, I do hope we're getting new episodes soon.
Catfish: The TV Show is available on streaming for those with a Hulu subscription, and with so many episodes, you can spend the rest of summer watching people be thrilled or disappointed at meeting their mystery lover.