Catfish Episode Based in Syracuse Airs Tonight
Mike Pont / Stringer
Are you a sucker for reality TV? Well hold onto your hat because an episode of Catfish that was filmed in Syracuse is airing tonight.
A preview reveals that the episode features a Syracuse man named CJ, who started talking to a girl named Shana from New Jersey over Facebook. CJ said they talked for years and he fell in love with Shana, but she always had a reason why they couldn't meet in person or video chat. Then out of the blue, Shana's friend told CJ that Shana had died.
"I was feeling heartbroken," CJ said in the preview video. "I was hurting and I cared about her and I loved her.... I just lost a girl that I've never even met yet."
But the story gets even weirder. Two years after Shana's "death," he stumbled across a different Facebook account with her name. He immediately sent her messages and she said she had been in a toxic relationship and wasn't sure how to get out of it. Soon after, CJ broke up with his girlfriend at the time to start talking to Shana again.
"Texting a dead girl?" Catfish host Nev Schulman said in the preview. "You broke up with a real, living person for a Facebook zombie?"
It's been eight years since their first messages, but CJ still loves Shana and wants to see where things go. Schulman and guest co-host Justin Combs flew out to Syracuse to investigate the situation.
Are you hooked? I sure am. Well good news: we can watch the full episode at 8 p.m. tonight on MTV.