It’s been close to a decade since Max and Nev charged up the GoPro and hit the highways of North America, and introduced the world to the concept of ‘Catfishing’. The series would prove to penetrate the zeitgeist to the point where even my 65-year-old father is familiar with the term. For a hot minute there, it was looking like Australia was soon to be gifted with its own localised version of the hit series however news overnight has confirmed that Catfish Australia will no longer be a thing.
The Australian-ised version was earmarked to be hosted by former Australian Idol winner and highly-publicised Catfish victim, Casey Donovan alongside former SBS The Feed presenter Patrick Abboud. Over the past few years, Donovan has shaken off the shackles of her reality TV origin to become a star in her own right and indeed many Australia’s seemed thrilled on her return to the screen – even my old ass Father. However, studio execs have confirmed that they’ve struggled to cast anymore decent talent.
“We swear, we didn’t Catfish you!” A Channel 10 spokesperson said in a statement to TV Blackbox, “Unfortunately, Catfish Australia is no longer part of our 2019 Pilot Week schedule. We cast out a line, but didn’t have the right bait to catch you a catfish in time.”
In other words, there simply wasn’t enough flavour within our Catfished population. The statement also alludes to future attempts to try and pull off a similar pilot.
Channel 10’s Pilot week is kicking off in the new future and is set to expose Australian society to a weird and wonderful range of soul-sucking yet delicious programming including a series based on Roxy Jacenko titled ‘I Am…Roxy’ and a series called My 80 Year Old Flatmate which we can only assume is a very literal title.
Catfish is a series where people operating behind fake social media identities are exposed and while having one foot firmly planted in the world of ‘Misery porn’, featured regular teachable moments (I.e. Don’t trust strangers on the internet). No doubt more than we’ll see in My 80-Year-Old Flatmate.
