MTV has paused production on the television show Catfish following allegations of sexual harassment against executive producer and co-host Yaniv “Nev” Schulman, according to The Daily Beast.
“We take these allegations very seriously,” an MTV spokesperson told Coins2Day. “We’re working with Critical Content, our third party production company, to conduct a thorough investigation and we’ve put a pause on shooting until the investigation is completed.”
The allegations were made in a series of YouTube videos by Ayissha Morgan, who appeared on the show during season four, which aired in 2015.
In the videos posted last week, Morgan, who is a lesbian, discusses two instances of alleged sexual misconduct that she claims happened while she was shooting Catfish. Using pseudonyms, she alleges that a co-host, who she refers to as “Jack,” but who The Daily Beast identified, made unwanted advances towards her and propositioned her. She also describes being taken advantage of while drunk by a female production assistant who she calls “Carol.”
In a statement to The Daily Beast, Schulman denied the allegations.
“The behavior described in this video did not happen and I’m fortunate that there are a number of former colleagues who were present during this time period who are willing to speak up with the truth,” Schulman said in the statement. “I have always been transparent about my life and would always take responsibility for my actions—but these claims are false.”
Schulman along with filmmakers Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman (Nev’s brother) initially filmed a documentary called Catfish about Nev Schulman’s personal online relationship with a woman, who allegedly deceived Nev by pretending to be another woman on Facebook. The MTV reality show hosted by Nev Schulman and co-host Max Joseph looks into people’s online relationships to see if they are being so-called “catfished,” or deceived by people pretending to be somebody else online. The show was renewed for a seventh season in January.
Full disclosure, I previously worked at the media company ATTN:, which produces the f500link]Facebook[/hotlink] show called We Need to Talk that stars Nev Schulman and his wife Laura Perlongo. The show was renewed for a second season in February.
“ATTN: does not condone harassment of any kind, and we plan to pause working with Nev until this investigation comes to a conclusion,” a spokesperson for ATTN: told Coins2Day.
Coins2Day contacted Nev’s booking agent for comment. We will update as necessary.
Update: This article was updated to spell out that The Daily Beast has identified Nev Schulman as the executive producer who is alleged to have engaged in sexual misconduct.