The Ratings For The ‘Catfish’ TV Show Have Spiked Considerably Since The Manti Te’o Dead Girlfriend Hoax

Let’s take this story step-by-step. First of all, Catfish is the name of a 2010 documentary about a woman who hid behind multiple online identities, lying to people who established a “relationship” with each of them. Second, MTV recently started airing a television version of Catfish, which you can tell is the TV show and not the movie because it is helpfully titled Catfish: The TV Show.

And finally, following last week’s news about Notre Dame middle linebacker Manti Te’o being “catfished” himself (by a dude who went who so far as to adopt a female voice and pretend to be Te’o’s “online girlfriend” on the “phone” phone hundreds of times), the ratings for MTV’s show are huge:

Jumping from its previous week’s showing of a 1.3 rating with adults 18-49, Nielsen shows the hourlong unscripted series matched a series high of a 1.7 rating with adults 18-49. It topped all other cable broadcasts in the key demo. In total viewers, Catfish also matched a high with 2.7 million viewers (up from 2.1 million). [THR]

It certainly makes sense that the ratings for a show so intertwined with a huge scandal — to the point I had someone my parents’ age ask me about “the Manti Te’o’ catfishing thing” this weekend — would spike in the week after the scandal. The bigger question is how many of those curious eyeballs with keep coming back week after week.

Anyway, speaking of catfish that are getting pretty huge latelAHHHHHHHHHHHH IT’S LOOKING AT ME SOMEBODY SHOOT IT.

Huge catfish via @pourmecoffee

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