Entertainment

‘Catfish’ ratings jump thanks to Te’o hoax

There was one winner in the Manti Te’o hoax ordeal: the MTV show “Catfish.”

Ratings for the reality series about the hazards of online dating jumped 30 percent to 2.7 million viewers in their first new episode since the Te’o story broke. The Monday-night episode was also the 6th most-talked-about show on social media last week, according to social-media research firm, Trendrr.

The show is hosted by Nev Schulman and Max Joseph, who help online daters determine if the person they are dating is a “catfish,” someone who isn’t who they say they are.

Schulman fell into the center of the Te’o controversy last week when it was revealed that the woman whose photos were being used to represent the Notre Dame player’s nonexistent girlfriend had reached out to Schulman via Twitter before the story broke.

Schulman remains involved in the story, and he hopes to be the one to bring together Te’o and the man who has admitted to being behind the hoax, Ronaiah Tuiasosopo.

“I am very interested in helping to facilitate what could be a very important and revealing discussion between Manti and Ronaiah and any other people who end up being involved in this,” Schulman told The Post. “And I know MTV would support me in that.”