‘Catfish: The TV Show’ Hosts Nev Schulman and Kamie Crawford Unpack the ‘Chaos’ of New Episodes (Exclusive)

Catfish: The TV Show‘s all-new episodes are bringing the “chaos” like never before. Ahead of the Tuesday, Oct. 3 return of the MTV series, hosts Nev Schulman and Kamie Crawford opened up to PopCulture.com about all the madness to come as they track down the truth behind suspect online relationships. From a “life savings” being spent to “a lot of tattoos,” Schulman and Crawford couldn’t believe the situations they found themselves in while filming these new episodes.

“We’re not trying to make it weirder,” Schulman told PopCulture of the new Catfish: The TV Show episodes, as Crawford agreed, “No. People are getting weirder.” Schulman added, “Things are just getting weirder.” There is hope amid the bad tattoos and compromised social security numbers, however, as Crawford teased there “are some love stories sprinkled out,” including one happy ending. “I think you should expect the unexpected always,” she said. 

When it comes to investigating the stories of these catfish and their victims, Schulman thinks there is “a post-pandemic element for sure” when it comes to the increased social anxiety and emotional connections he’s seen. “We’re seeing, I think, connections that have been made in the last few years that are particularly strong because of the shared trauma that we all experienced,” he explained. 

Despite the recent developments in technology like photo editing that make faking a personality online easier than ever, Schulman explained that catfishing has stayed comparatively low-tech. “I think [what’s] honestly surprising and somewhat disappointing is that even with all the technology available to catfish, they’re usually pretty lazy,” he told PopCulture. “They do the least. There’s something about successfully catfishing someone that almost requires you do less because the more you try to do or make, the easier it is to detect your fake. So the smaller your footprint, ‘Oh, I don’t have social media. Oh, I only can send you a few pictures,’ It almost sort of limits your exposure, but also I think makes you more mysterious and interesting and draws people in.”

The catfishing methodology may stay the same, but the stories never do, which is what has kept Schulman tracking down online deception for more than a decade now. “I think there’s a lot of things that I love about this job. One is because of the nature of what we’re doing and that the people that we’re helping are real people with real lives whose stories are happening in real time,” he explained. And there’s no end to the variety of catfishing stories either. “No two are ever the same, so it’s just always fun,” he added. 

Crawford agreed that the element of surprise keeps her coming back season after season. “I think people have this misconception that Nev and I are in on something before we go into filming,” she explained. “We have no idea what is happening. Ever. We literally open the laptop, we read the email, and that’s our first time hearing about anyone, knowing anything.” Follow Schulman and Crawford as they track down a whole new school of catfish as Catfish: The TV Show returns Tuesday, Oct. 3 at 8 p.m. ET on MTV.