The fame game! Cohosts Nev Schulman and Max Joseph teamed up to help 19-year-old Nae from Virginia Beach discover the truth about her internet famous online beau on the Wednesday, August 8, episode of Catfish.
Nae initially reached out to the MTV hosts because she and her famous crush “Brandon” had only spoken once over the course of their relationship — an obvious Catfish red flag. Brandon, she explained, had found internet fame on the now-defunct Vine app and had amassed over 80 thousand followers on Instagram as well as a profile on FamousBirthdays.com. While the show never actually revealed the allegedly famous Brandon’s identity, we couldn’t help but wonder who it might be.
While Nae was smitten with the man she met on Tinder, Nev and Max were skeptical due to the fact that he only had two photos on his profile feed despite having such a high follower count. While researching the case, Nev even mused, “Is he buying followers?” After Max said he thought Brandon may be made up, Nev attempted to discredit the Famous Birthdays profile saying, “I think anyone can kind of make one of these or edit them.”
Eventually, the sleuth duo connected with a man named Matt from Altoona, Pennsylvania, Brandon’s hometown, who confirmed his social media profiles were real. While the accounts ended up being authentic, another red flag emerged when Nae admitted, “He has an Instagram but doesn’t follow me.”
Nae said that if she had to guess who the person behind the account was, she’d assume be her ex-boyfriend Thomas who had been attempting to get in touch with her through her twin sister Niq. Thomas, Nae confessed, had cheated on her in high school and only wanted to get back together with her after she had washed her hands of him.
The episode culminated with Brandon getting in touch with Nae and insisting on meeting in Los Angeles away from the cameras. Eventually Nev was able to convince the young man to appear on camera only to discover the person posing as Brandon was in fact Nae’s ex. Nae was clearly upset to discover her famous beau was a lie. Thomas admitted that Brandon “was just someone I randomly looked up online,” adding that in his google search, he typed, “random tall white blonde guy.”
Thomas, desperate for Nae to take him back, explained of his motive for the fake profile. “Hopefully, you know, she’d realize that I went through all of this for her and that my feelings are real,” he said. Sadly for Thomas, Nae did not take his gesture to be an act of romance.
Two months later, Nae had moved on from “Brandon.” She even admitted she was dating two people at once — a guy and a girl!
Catfish airs on MTV Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET.
