Catfish: The TV Show, MTV‘s long-running docuseries exploring the falsities clouding online dating, has been canceled after nine seasons, Deadline has confirmed.
Based on the 2010 documentary film Catfish from Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman, which followed Yaniv “Nev” Schulman as he built a romantic relationship with a woman on Facebook, the critical and commercially successful project led to an eponymous series in 2012 and coined the term “catfishing,” meaning the deception a person engages in when creating a fake online persona.
The reality show, which continued its investigation of misleading online romances, spanned well over 200 episodes. MTV will allow the show’s producers to shop Catfish elsewhere, as the cable channel owned by Paramount Skydance will continue to air reruns.
Hosted by Nev Schulman, the series features a “hopeful” who has been deceived in their digital relationship and the “catfish,” with the format sometimes allowing for the two to meet. The final ninth season concluded its run in the summer of last year, following an early January 2024 renewal for its Tuesday night slot amid solid cable ratings. Later that year, in October, co-host Kamie Crawford announced her exit from the reality series, nearly six years into her tenure. She had joined the show in Season 7 in 2018 after being one of several people to guest host alongside Nev Schulman, following the departure of Max Joseph, who had been co-hosting Catfish since its premiere.
A wildly successful program for MTV, the series spawned two short-lived spinoffs and numerous international editions, including in Colombia, Chile, Brazil, Mexico and the U.K. Additionally, Wondery launched Catfish: The Podcast jointly with MTV in 2020, which spanned two seasons.
The cancellation comes as Nev Schulman recently acquired his real estate license, posting on social media that he is looking forward to helping individuals buy and sell property in New York. Catfish‘s status was up in the air following the official closing of the Paramount Skydance merger in August, which is sure to result in further shakeups reverberating through content decisions and staff layoffs.
Variety first reported news of the cancellation.
The post MTV Cancels ‘Catfish: The TV Show’ After 9 Seasons appeared first on Deadline.
