Ohio University students who have found love in non-traditional ways online might have a chance to be united with their significant others in person.
Catfish: The TV Show is searching nationwide for applicants to appear on its second season. The show has yet to have an applicant from Ohio and casting producer Mark Pomerville specifically reached out to OU for applicants.
Catfish is a series that provides participants with the opportunity to meet someone with whom they’ve been having an online relationship. Some applicants are also ‘catfish,’ someone who has been using a fake profile on the Internet.
Pomerville said the show is more of a docu-series rather than a reality show.
“I think it’s very real. We pretty much just document it,” Pomerville said. “None of this is rehearsed, these individual stories are real.”
Robert Stewart, director of the Scripps School of Journalism, dabbled in making documentaries when he was younger and said the documentary aspect of the series can add to the show.
“Almost anything has a deeper angle to it,” Stewart said. “If you take some time, you can tell what seems like a very simple story in a much more enriched way and I think a documentary is a good way to do that.”
About one in five committed relationships has begun online, according to statisticbrain.com.
“Internet dating is something that is so common now and I think it’s something that’s striking a chord with viewers,” Pomerville said.
MaryKate Taulbee, a sophomore studying organizational communications, has an account on DateMySchool.com.
“Right now I’m not looking to accomplish too much, just meeting new people,” Taulbee said. “I didn’t sign up for it being serious. I just wanted to see what it was about and see what was out there.”
Pomerville said once an applicant is chosen, he or she is filmed for about a week. Filmmakers Nev Schulman and Max Joseph do not know the applicant’s story before they start filming.
Travel expenses, time off work and costs of dates are all covered by the show.
Applicants for the program should send their submissions to mtvcatfishcasting.com and include a description of their online relationship, contact information, photos and anything that could be considered a red flag in the relationship. Everything an applicant sends into the show is confidential.
“We just want to see if we can help. Our goal is that the relationships that these people have formed over months and years lasts,” Pomerville said. “If it takes a different form, we still want them to be able to communicate and have a future together because they’ve meant so much to each other for so long.”
je726810@ohiou.edu
