Television Tuesday: Are We Even Supposed to Root for the Couples on, "90 Day Fiancé," Anymore?

"90 Day Fiancé," is a franchise that rivals the Marvel Cinematic Universe in its size and scope. The first season of the original series launched in January of 2014. The idea was to follow a couple where one lived in America and the other in a foreign country. Through the K-1 Visa process, the (potentially) future spouse was coming to the U.S., and they had 90 days (per the Visa) to either get married or leave the country voluntarily if the planned marriage did not happen. The show was a hit and spawned so, so many spin-offs. Over twelve years later, and you've got folks who are basically celebrities thanks to the show. Some couples appeared, and everyone forgot them, but other folks became fan favorites and famous (or infamous) for their behavior. We've got couples meeting before the 90-day process, those going, "The Other Way," people from the show who are currently without a spouse and living, "The Single Life," and the list goes on. Some couples are being followed on, "Happy Ever After?" and others are about ready to break up and at, "The Last Resort." Certain individuals got their own show, such as Darcy and Stacy or, "The Family Chantel." There was a short-lived cooking show, for goodness sake! It enjoy much of the franchise, but one little thing has been bugging me. I feel like there is this nagging question of whether, somewhere along the way, we weren't supposed to actually root for the couples anymore?

The earlier years of the 90 Day behemoth had some real characters, yes, but there were plenty of couples who seemed to deeply love each other and be relatively well-adjusted adults. Plenty of those, "Early," cast members are still together. Some couples have had children and are living their best lives. Even people who appeared on the show some years later often seem dedicated to trying to make their love work through patience, conversations, empathy, and otherwise being decent human beings--Kenny and Armondo are one of the first LGBTQ couples who first appeared on, "The Other Way," show (in 2020) and care about each other so much. Yet, as time has gone on, I would say that if we put it bluntly, shit's gone crazy. Yes, we've always had people like Angela Deem or good ol' Colt Johnson popping up in the 90-day Universe, but there were stable or at least stable-ish people too. Now, whenever a new couple enters the franchise on their own K-1 Visa journey, at least one person seems extremely problematic in some way, if not both individuals. 

Kobe and Emily, a rare later-series couple (debuted season 9) who are still happy.
Plus, BOTH seem like cool folks.

This latest season of the OG show (we're now in the middle of season 12) we have someone blaming OCD for a clear case of alcoholism (Catie), a business exec (Marrisa) who can't stop belittling the supposed new love of her life, a serial cheater (Shea), an amateur actor (Mido) who seems to be conning his future wife, someone whose dedication to Christinaity seems to give them their own God complex (Ashia), a couple who like to just constantly be petty at each other (Thomas & Paula), and Mallorie and Rașit who argue a ton about a guy friend she has as well as some money she's got in a trust. In previous seasons, that last couple would be considered rocky, but now, they seem the most stable and reasonable out of all the madness. If I'm watching a show about international love but screaming at the screen that almost everyone needs to break up, that's a problem. 

To the show's credit, sometimes the American is awful, and sometimes the foreign love is a monster...so hooray for proving terrible guys and gals can be found anywhere in the World? Seriously, though, the message of this show has morphed from, "Love knows no borders," to, "Look at these jerks from all around the World!" All of that said, I'm still watching a number of the shows and do enjoy both the happy couples and the messy ones. We just seem to get a lot more disasters of relationships to rubberneck than ones to support and cheer about. I mean, drama is going to get more attention than stability, so there ya go.

The Inexplicably Magnetic Toxicity of Colt from, "90 Day Fiance," on TLC

Colt Johnson has been on various iterations of, "90 Day Fiance," for years now. It started out as a show focused on people who had a potential spouse coming over from another country on a K-1 visa so they could get married and start their future spouse on a path to citizenship. Things quickly expanded to create an entire universe of 90-day shows focused on everything from a couples first meeting in person, to people moving to a foreign country, checking on couples and how they're doing, and following up on individuals whose relationships did not work out and are now looking for love again. What started out as a single idea turned into a multi-tentacled octopus of entertainment. Some of the spin-off shows are better than others, and some, "Cast members," are quite intriguing, while other folks are a bore who vanish after a single season. Colt first appeared in 2018 on the, "OG," franchise with Larissa. He almost comes across as sympathetic there, as Larissa was portrayed in an unflattering light when she came over from Brazil to become engaged to and then marry Colt. Colt often had his mother, Debbie, around and meddling in his life, which caused immense friction with Larissa. He and Larissa divorced within a year. Then things get weird.

Before I go down the rabbit hole of Colt's romantic life, let's discuss the man himself. He's a bit nerdy, known as a horndog, and doesn't seem that special, but he keeps drawing in women who he then does terribly wrong. When you watch him on television, you want to hate him, but he's just self-aware and funny enough that it's like the, "Heel," in a wrestling match or Jason in, "Friday the 13th." They're clearly villains, but they're just so fun to watch as they wreak havoc, and Colt has given us plenty of mayhem.

Once Colt was single, he started seeing another Brazilian woman named Jessica. She was a sweet redhead who really liked him, it appeared. He proceeded to cheat on her with a friend he knew locally, Vanessa. Eventually, he and Vanessa got married, had tons of relationship issues (mainly, his infidelity) and divorced. In 2025, we watched as Colt appeared on, "90 Day Fiance: The Hunt for Love," which put a bunch of people who had been on different iterations of the show in a resort to hook up with random folks or each other. Colt and someone else who had been on the show long ago and reappeared only recently-ish, Cortney, fell in love. He also got horribly injured on a slippery step and broke his leg. He moved in with Cortney, and as the latest season of, "The Single Life," has shown us, engaged in remote cheating by using his cellphone to engage in sexting other women--all while struggling to have sex with her and blaming his injury.

On the March 9th episode of, "The Single Life," we saw as Cortney confirmed Colt was lying to her and she kicked him out of her house--where he was currently living. When they met later to discuss how batshit insane everything has been, she pointed out how he is:

1. Injured/can't walk.

2. Homeless (she's letting him crash with her at her parents' house).

3. Jobless (besides this show, of course).

4. Has erectile dysfunction (at least with her) and can't get it up to even have sex...

...yet he is still cheating on her. Then the episode ends with her hesitating to actually leave him and maybe, just maybe, forgive this man and stay? Say what? How does Colt do this to all these women, or as a cast member named Tim once said during a show where they watch 90-day programs with us, "How does Colt get so much ass?"

Perhaps it is a case where Colt gives off an energy where women are like, "I can fix him!" Maybe it is how he is affable, intelligent, and smart enough with that intelligence to hide his slimy tendencies. After two failed marriages, no job, no home, and supposedly having a micropenis as some exes claim, you'd think a person such as Cortney would know better than to set a single foot near Colt...and yet, here we are in 2025 (when the show was filmed), and Colt is somehow irresistible to the ladies. He has some kind of magnetic toxicity, and despite being aware that he should know better than to act how he does...Colt always screws things up. Colt excels at making any bad situation he is in worse. He says he feels shame anytime he gets caught for his behavior, but he keeps doing it--and yes, us the audience, keep watching.

This brings up the age-old debate about reality shows and whether they do little more than encourage bad behavior. The worst individuals/villains/heels get all the airtime, and the fans gobble it up. Can you remember a boring lady from a, "Real Housewives," show, or when you think if castmembers do names such as Nene Leakes, Jen Shah, and so forth pop into your noggin? If you're not a diehard fan of, "Vanderpump Rules," name someone besides Tom Sandoval--Hell, even if you never watch the show or anywhere else he has appeared, you might know that name due to the usual news and jokes of popular culture! We've got an admittedly fun show all about the baddies of reality television called, "House of Villains," and I've seen zero desire online for a house of heroes. Are we enabling Colt by tuning in to his shenanigans? I, personally, think he would behave the way he does regardless of cameras being present sometimes in his life, but as long as the cameras are there, I want to witness what he gets up to! Oh no, does his magnetic toxicity affect us television viewers as well?

Since reality television became popular, those who scheme, backstab, cheat, and otherwise are deceptive are the people who get the most attention. From, "The Real World," and Puck to, "Survivor," and Richard Hatch in the, "Old," days to more recent stuff such as Plane Jane on the 16th season of, "RuPaul's Drag Race," and Monica Garcia in the fourth season of, "Real Housewives of Salt Lake City." I mean, one of my favorite reality television shows ever would be, "Big Brother," and Dan Gheeseling is generally thought of as being one of the best players ever because of how good a job he did outright lying and plotting how to screw others over (he struggled a bit on, "The Traitors," though, proving just becuase you excel at one game doesn't mean you will always be good at every single competition). 

We don't necessarily root for the bad guy/gal in reality television, scripted T.V., movies, games, or whatever, but we can all probably admit the scoundrel is fun to watch. Hence, Colt remains a presence of many, "90 Day," shows, and we find ourselves glued to our screens asking, "Jeez, what will he do next?" Tune into the latest episodes of, "90 Day Fiance: The Single Life," if you feel like you need to find out. Don't worry, I won't judge, I'll be right there with you (symbolically, that is, I will be on my own couch) watching too.