It feels so good! After five episodes apart, Max Joseph and Nev Schulman are finally reuniting on Catfish‘s April 1 episode. (Cue the slow-mo run-and-hug!) But before we watch the Internet detectives meet again in a tearful embrace (just projecting, but that’s 100 percent what we want to see), let’s examine how each of the five guest hosts fared in Joseph’s place.
Joseph took a Catfish hiatus during the first half of season 5 to direct his feature film debut, We Are Your Friends (starring Zac Efron!). During that time MTV recruited Charlamagne Tha God, Cassidy Wolf, Angel Haze, Tyler Oakley, and Alex Shaffer to step in and co-host alongside Schulman. Here’s how the newbies worked out, ranked from worst (but not bad!) to best.
5. Alex Shaffer
Shaffer, who costars in the movie Joseph has been off filming, stepped in for his director for the final of Catfish’s guest-hosted episodes. He was a pleasant enough guy, but didn’t add to much in the way of insight into the whole thing. But we’d totally go get a beer with him sometime.
4. Cassidy Wolf
The former Miss Teen USA suffered from her own online nightmare when someone hacked into her computer and spied on her via its built-in webcam, and has been a very vocal activist for cyber crime awareness ever since. Her personal incident allowed her to empathize with her episode’s victim, Courtney, but Wolf seemed so shocked by the whole Catfish experience that she didn’t really add much otherwise.
3. Charlamagne Tha God
The Girl Code comic and radio host had the toughest job — he was the first non-Max person to partner up with Schulman — but his blunt, outspoken nature made him perfect in the role. Joseph’s often the cynical, rational one, and Charlamagne stepped into those shoes quite easily as he and Schulman discovered that Miracle’s supposed rapper boyfriend was actually an ill housewife, not a music producer. (It’s always a music producer.)
2. Tyler Oakley
There’s a reason YouTube superstar Oakley is so popular — he’s charming, witty, and accessible. Those are all characteristics that made the main Catfish duo so popular, too, so he fit in well with Schulman. Plus, he never forgot to take control of Joseph’s tiny digital camera whenever something big went down.
1. Angel Haze
True story: The best replacement for silver fox Joseph was bisexual rapper Angel Haze — she was so good, in fact, that she and Schulman have teamed up for a new series about ironing out family feuds called Truce. The outspoken musician (and girlfriend of Ireland Baldwin) was both sympathetic and skeptical of Harold’s online love Armani, who turned out to be an unapologetic stranger named Tamila. Angel Haze was smart, asked the subjects questions, and didn’t let either Harold or Tamila get away with any of the ridiculous things they both said.
Catfish airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m. ET on MTV.
Tell Us: Who was your favorite Catfish guest host? Are you happy Max is back?