Did You Know That MTV’s “Catfish” Had an Episode in Kalamazoo?
While in Florida visiting a friend, our beach day plans were ruined by a morning filled with torrential downpours. So, as anyone would do, we sat down to binge some trash T.V. shows instead.
Typically, realty television isn't my forte. The drama normally seems fake and I loathe dropping a major "jaw dropping" moment before directly going to commercial. However, MTV was running a marathon of Catfish. If you're unfamiliar, Catfish is a show that aims to catch people pretending to be someone they're not online in order to trick their target. It could be for money, for revenge, for love...you name it.
Wouldn't you know it, one of the episodes we caught was filmed right here in Kalamazoo.
The episode in question featured a young man named Tristyn who had fallen in love with a woman named Lara. They had already had a three year relationship with one, glaring red flag: they had never facetimed or met in person. They're relationship was strictly over text and phone calls despite, apparently, being only 30 minutes away from each other. If I remember correctly from watching this episode, they had even made plans to move out of state with each other. Without ever having met in person.
I've never been catfished but, to me, if someone refuses to show me their face I'm definitely going to be suspicious. Hence why the Catfish team got involved.
Nev and Kamie, pictured above, were able to track down some information about this 'Lara' and confirmed that she was a real person and the person Tristyn was talking to. In the world of Catfish, that's a miracle.
A meeting was arranged, which you can see below.
A common practice on the show is to check in a couple months later on the person who was catfished. Unfortunately, despite a great connection when they finally met, Tristyn revealed that the relationship did not work out. Guess that's what happens when you avoid meeting your "significant other" for 3 years. You can read full details on this episode here.
Not The Only Catfish in Kalamazoo
While I was surprised to see the town of Kalamazoo featured on an MTV show, it turns out this isn't the only episode with a catfish from SW Michigan.
I was searching for video clips and information on the above episode when I discovered the case of Tyler Hayden who thought he was talking to a woman named Amanda who attended WMU.
Unfortunately for Tyler, he wasn't talking to a woman at all but rather a man named Aaron pretending to be Amanda. You can read more about that episode here.
Reality shows may not be my favorite but I'll admit they're hard to turn off when you get sucked into the drama. And while not all reality shows focus on drama I have to say I'm surprised by just how many Michiganders have made it onto television: