Catfish: The TV Show

Catfish: The TV Show (often shortened to Catfish) is an American reality-based documentary television series airing on MTV about the truths and lies of online dating. The series, which premiered on November 12, 2012, is based on the 2010 film Catfish. On September 22, 2025, it was announced that the series had been cancelled after nine seasons.

The show presents the "hopeful" as the one who initiates contact in an attempt to discover the true identity of their online romance, or "catfish". Some of the show's casting calls solicit stories from hopefuls. Casting director Michael Esposito has said that the show has received more than 100 applications a day.

They used to tank cod from Alaska all the way to China. They'd keep them in vats in the ship. By the time the codfish reached China, the flesh was mush and tasteless. So this guy came up with the idea that if you put these cods in these big vats, put some catfish in with them and the catfish will keep the cod agile. And there are those people who are catfish in life. And they keep you on your toes. They keep you guessing, they keep you thinking, they keep you fresh. And I thank God for the catfish because we would be ... boring and dull if we didn't have somebody nipping at our fin.

— Nev Schulman (Catfish, the film)

The term "catfish" originated as the title of a 2010 documentary in which filmmaker Schulman discovers that the woman with whom he'd been having an online relationship had not been honest in describing herself. The term has since come to be used to refer to someone who creates a fake personal profile on social sites using someone else's pictures and false biographical information to pretend to be someone else, usually intending to trick someone into falling in love with them.

In each episode, Schulman and his co-host, first receive a request by someone who is emotionally entangled with someone they have never met in real life. Then they usually travel to the person's residence and do online research to try to uncover the truth about whether the other participant in the virtual relationship is legitimate or a "catfish", and make them meet either way. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the show was filmed online and instead of an in-person meeting, participants met through Zoom. Some of these couples have been communicating for a few months—others, for years. Schulman has said that the show is not all about pulling the rug out from under people, explaining:

Whether or not two people are totally lying to each other and it turns out to be a huge disaster, that's only the first part of the story. We then want to know why they are doing it, who they are, what they are feeling, what led them to this place, and why that resonates with thousands of other young people who have the same feelings, who don't have someone to talk to or don't know how to express themselves.

— Nev Schulman, August 2012 Zap2It article