A ‘Big Brother’ Finalist Is Appearing on ‘Catfish’

MTV

A Big Brother fan-favorite is about to hop over to another popular reality show when Michael “Cowboy” Ellis of Big Brother 5 appears on MTV’s reality internet investigation show Catfish next week. Here’s what the preview tells us to expect.


Ellis Is Being Catfished By a Woman Named Julia

In the preview that was posted to Reddit, host Nev Schulman says, “Michael is a reality TV star who has fallen in love with Julia, a girl he met online.” The episode description adds, “Michael is a reality TV star that has fallen in love with his online dream girl Julia, but he gets a reality check as the truth is uncovered.”

In the preview, Ellis says, “We talked about our future, how many kids she wants to have, but she said that she’s a virgin,” which the hosts both think sounds strange.

In a different preview for the eighth season as a whole, Ellis can be seen saying, “She wanted to become a nun. She’s a virgin.”

Schulman finds it weird that Julia and Ellis have “52 mutual friends” and wonders “what the hell is going on?!” as co-host Kamie Crawford says “there has to be a catch.”

“I feel like I’m gonna have a heart attack,” concludes Ellis as someone rings his doorbell.

Ellis was previously married to a woman named Cheryl Hook, but presumably, they have divorced, since he was romancing a woman named Julia online. We will definitely keep you posted next week as to what goes down if you can’t watch the Catfish episode for yourself.


Ellis Has Largely Stayed Out of the Spotlight Until Recently

Ellis kind of fell off the radar after his time on Big Brother 5 in which he finished runner-up to Drew Daniel and also met his half-sister Jennifer “Nakomis” Dedmon in the house (that was part of that season’s twist). But he recently got back in the reality TV game with both this Catfish appearance and a tryout on Masterchef.

According to his Facebook page, a couple of years ago he tried to get on the ninth season of the popular cooking competition series. Ellis said he made it to round two but was not ultimately chosen to appear on the show. He did get to meet Cesar Cano, who finished runner-up on season nine.

He also sometimes meets up for reality TV events. He has photos on his Facebook wall of himself with former contestants Enzo Palumbo, James Rhine, Howie Gordon, and Jason Roy, and on Twitter, he frequently attends Big Brother charity fundraisers with alums like Elissa Slater, Rachel Reilly, Judd Daugherty, Joe Arvin, and more. And it seems like Ellis and his half-sister have an amicable relationship. They got together in 2018 for what looks like their father’s wedding.

Catfish airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on MTV. Big Brother 23 will return in the summer of 2021. Until then, we might get a new season of Big Brother Canada this winter/spring and there is talk of a winter edition of Celebrity Big Brother.

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