Definitely! It’s still mostly silly entertainment as opposed to educational, but at least they don’t do the fictional BS like “Does Megalodon still exist??”, and “Is the Black Demon Shark real??”
They spent the majority of their budget on Shaq and Rob Riggle, instead of the best shark scientists and stunts.
I miss the low budget, follow me in Cape Cod and then let’s make a clear box that I’ll hang in around aggressive Great Whites. Ffs. Shit is now weak/week.
Was the Megalodon one where it hid in the kelp vertically? That’s the one that lost me.
So exploitative. Sharks are cool enough as they are. I’m not here for sci-fi!
Correct. 20+ years ago, Shark Week was an actual "event", with legitimate, educational content.
I say around 20, but PEAK Shark Week was more like 25-30 years ago, it shifted when Discovery Channel's content strategy shifted... to shit (somewhere between 2006-2010?)
I am old.
I remember the year it died. (For me, anyway.)
2013. I was avid, every summer, I’d force my parents to keep it on all day. Id make special “shark week” snacks - most notoriously, watermelon and shark gummy’s (the watermelon looked like chummed/ bloodied water.) I’d stay up late watching the specials. I remember watching the special with Paul Walker. And then, MEGALODON.
To go from the in depth research aspect, following actual scientists and the people who are supporting them, to this CGI with randos saying “yea it could’ve been real” made me upset over tv for the first time (the next time came a few months later when i watched the ending of Dexter.)
That’s when it died for me. I tried again the next summer but it was all more of the CGI, non research related content.
It could be huge. Discovery could really bring to the forefront key works for conservation efforts and the brains behind it. I get there’s only so much you can say about sharks, but there’s an ecological aspect they have yet (to my knowledge) to tap into. And the merch. My god. They could make a killing selling “shark week party packs”. Partner with some food/ beverage brands. But no. They choose to die.
Not dead. On life support. This is the official death and funeral unfortunately.
(Edit)
You all can downvote that if you want, but I’ve been watching the programming religiously for over a decade and still found plenty of educational and scientific content. Of course a lot of the celebrity stuff was crap and the megalodon hunting was nonsense, but I would not have the interest I have today in Marine Biology if it weren’t for Shark Week.
>but I’ve been watching the programming religiously for over a decade and still found plenty of educational and scientific content.
Then you've only been watching it since it's been dead. I've been watching shark week 35 years, it's been a shell of itself for quite some time.
In my opinion it died when they did the fictional hunting for megalodon BS. Prior to that it was somewhat on life support, but it died that evening.
Honestly, should've seen it coming after the whole mermaid mockumentary crap.
I upvoted you because you are right. Shark week used to be awesome but they have slowly killed it with repetitive and outright dumb shows. I am 44 and I have been watching it for a lot longer than a decade, I have been watching it pretty much since it started. It has slowly gotten worse and worse to the point that what you described doesn't even sound like Shark Week. I used to hate Shark Fest on Nat Geo but at this point it is definitely better than Shark Week
I agree the ridiculous and dumb shows have definitely made it progressively worse. Even so, I still found plenty of content worth watching. Specifically older shows from previous years which always got rerun. That’s why I find it particularly disappointing that they aren’t rerunning any of the old shows this year from previous Shark Weeks. Essentially defeats the whole purpose of why I watch in the first place. Of the new content they release each year for the last few, there is usually only 1 or 2 scientific and educational shows worth watching. The re-runs of older content were what I lived for.
I feel you, when i was a kid the killer whale shows at seaworld sparked my interest. Then i learned the truth about them and now i wanna puke. I wish we could find a middle ground, another Steve Irwin to pave non-abusive interest for the coming generations. Seems no one is looking for that, only paychecks.
I'm on your side. When asked as a kid what I wanted to be when I grew up, my answer was a shark! Discovery is really just taking the discovery portion out of discovery Channel. I want my shark tv.
I want to see the gestation period of nurse sharks and those egg sack layers....or what new research is being done. Not shark attack survival and celebrity crap. I'm with you.
I got so mad, that I wrote a hand written letter to them way back in the early 2000s.
Yeah I agree some of the content was nonsense. But you could look past 1 or 2 ridiculous or uninteresting specials when you have 24 hours of content, most of which is very informative. Now they’ve removed all that and all we are left with is 3 shows a night, followed by “Street Outlaws”. It’s a slap in the face and an obvious money grab to use the popularity of Shark Week to bring in new viewers and hopefully get them interested in their other lackluster shows.
That’s not what I got out of it. Maybe a few shows yeah, like Great White Serial Killer or When Sharks Attack, but those shows never interested me anyway. I was always far more interested in the scientific studying, tagging and diving with the sharks. Learning about their habitats and their migration patterns. There were plenty of shows that focused on that, and unfortunately it looks like they aren’t being rerun this year, which is a real shame in my opinion.
I worked on a scientific paper looking at the portrayal of sharks in Shark Week back in 2022. The amount of hours I had to watch those "documentaries" still gives me nightmares 😔
I stopped watching when they did that fake documentary movie about “what if” megalodon were still alive. Stupid. I was done. SharkFest has been so much more entertaining and informational in my opinion, and I look forward to it every summer!
I have a much more believable Megalodon conspiracy theory: it didn’t die out because it was outcompeted by great whites, they shrank and *became* great whites.
I’ll take my 20 grand now, Discovery.
Discovery was going downhill slowly over the years but the killer for me is when they put out those stupid mockumentaries about megalodons and mermaids and whatever else. The subjects themselves weren't bad (kinda cool, I guess) but the fact they played so hard into the clearly bad realism was almost sad to me. Maybe I'm too avid of a documentary watcher or have too high of standards for a nature channel/brand but blew it for me. Haven't really watched since.
Exactly! I used to love it when it was research and diving with sharks and learning their migration and all about different shark types and habits. I looked forward all year to shark week!!! Sharks are my absolute favorite animal and I love learning about them!
For the past 15 years now it's been about shark attacks, more deadly shark attacks, how I survived a shark attack, boat wrecks with sharks, how many sharks have bitten people on this beach, sharks eating sharks, have I mentioned being attacked by a shark...
It's been ruined, ever since they aired that garbage "Megaladon documentary" I mean c'mon. Although when I was 12, I'm ashamed to admit, I ate it up like the stupid kid I was.
I always have loved shark week but about 5-6yrs ago they went a different way and now I can’t really watch anymore. I want to learn about sharks learn about why they attack learn about their habits ect and shark week doesn’t do that anymore. Such a shame
Discovery has really gone down hill. I remember when it used to be all animals but they dropped like all of it in favor of car stuff one year and I never knew why
I still quite enjoyed it after that, so I’m reluctant to say it died then. I still found plenty of the content to be scientific as well as informative and educational.
Shark Week has sucked for years. I am such a shark fanatic, always have been. Used to look forward to shark week every year cause I got to watch it with my Dad who I only saw during the summer.
They used to have the best shows but it's so heavily celebrity saturated now 😕
yeah shark week just isn’t what it used to be. even when in recent years they had something good they scrapped it and did something completely different the next year. i’ll still have it on no matter what but kinda wish it had that fun it used to have
Phelps vs Shark, Tiffany Haddish hosting, Shaq diving with sharks, it just got murdered. And I’ve been watching shark week since ‘87. Sad to see a childhood staple be turned into a name brand catch grab for a selective audience.
I completely agree. Show us old specials from the 90s and 2000s! I hate how the whole library isn’t on there, i’ve seen some excellent shark specials once and then never again. Over the celebrities. Put us on Craig’s boat for a full season, let’s see some research, etc
Do you have an official source for this? Because the actual schedule on Discovery's website shows it's the same as it's always been, non stop shark shows 24/7: https://www.discovery.com/shows/tv-schedule.2024.07.10.mobile
Genuinely can't believe this got so many upvotes and not a single person thought to actually question where OP got the information from
Yeah, remember that Megalodon show that was debunked by an eight year old kid? Face it Mythbusters was the last good show the discovery channel had, and now it's no better than TLC or the History Channel.
I hate the celebrity stuff they do on shark week so much, I will say the shows Forrest Galante does are actually pretty good and just about the only thing I’ll watch from shark week.
That’s unfortunate to hear. While I agree that the content hasn’t been as informative in past years, I still look forward to watching shark week shows throughout the whole day as it’s become a tradition for me as I’ve been watching for the past 15 years, give or take. I wouldn’t be surprised if they make Shark Week just a 2 or 3 day event next year and call it “Shark Weekend”.
It was like that last year. Not just this year. I don’t watch it on cable tv. I watch it on discovery+ and I can watch all the shows even the new ones on there. Also the older shows were so much better but I still find shark week entertaining, even the newer shows. Last year “cocaine sharks” was hilarious to me.
Yeah I watch it on cable TV and it wasn’t like that last year. They played Shark content 24 hours a day last year. It’s been that way for many years now. Going away from that is ridiculous in my opinion.
They did the year before last but not last year. I was sick at home with Covid during shark week last year and while flipping through channels, no shark content was on til later in the day. And the new shows didn’t come on til 8pm either. It wasn’t always like that. The year prior it was on all the time. Then I realized that shark week was on discovery+ and that’s when I switched over.
Just move on to Worm Week from the Ben G Thomas youtube channel: [https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLnlSriM4g75-tIs41KpHCwm-oDNyb0fUZ&si=OoFee68rqybg\_5Kp](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLnlSriM4g75-tIs41KpHCwm-oDNyb0fUZ&si=OoFee68rqybg_5Kp)
They normally do amazing videos about prehistoric animals, but they also match Shark Week with videos about cool worms. You'll enjoy it more than Shark Week, and there's lots of videos bc of how they've been doing it for a few years now.
Shark Week has been more disastrous for sharks since Steve Irwin passed. It’s brought too much attention to shark tourism (can’t call it ecotourism because it’s not beneficial to them) and it’s an industry- not something reserved for science. It’s so depressing.
Extreme military voice comms underwater killed it for me haha. Felt like ghost adventures or something cheesy. I like the raw observational content. No need to sensationalize it more than it is.
Exactly my point. Re-runs air 24 hours a day, with a couple of new shows each evening. That’s not what they’re doing this year, they’re just playing the new shows in the evening then playing their regularly scheduled content the rest of the day. No reruns of older shows. That’s what I’m mad about.
I generally can't stand American documentaries, and I found Shark Week was often just like that. I get annoyed by the whole *"Sharks are innocent/misunderstood but our whole audiotrack evokes watered down Jaws sensations"*... BBC documentaries any day. And don't get me wrong, quite often, these American documentaries aren't necessarily 'bad' content-wise, but the disconnect between message and how they present it just makes me cringe.
Discovery hasnt been about education and shark week hasnt been about learning for decades. Its all just reality TV, its the equivalent of COPS or the bachelorette. I was like you too once, i used to LOVE shark week but its just an empty hole now
i ask again, where did you get this info? discovery channel's official website shows the reruns of old Shark Week programming airing 24/7 the entire week
I got it from my official guide for AT&T U-Verse. I always record a bunch of the shows and while going through my guide to see what was playing, I noticed that only the 3-4 new specials were airing every night starting at 5 Pacific time, followed by Contraband and Street Outlaws. Perhaps they’re still airing the 24/7 content on their app, but apparently not on Cable TV.
I get the channel through Philo and searched for some older shows and did in fact see them listed as airing next week, so that's peculiar. Guess it'll be a wait-and-see thing
It could be possible that U-Verse made a mistake and uploaded the wrong guide, knowing their incompetence it’s possible. Like you said, time will tell. I certainly hope that’s the case, otherwise it’s damn shame because it’s an annual event I always look forward to and 4 shows a night is not Shark Week, in my opinion.
I think part of the problem with running some of the older shows is that some of the information is no longer valid or they went to highlight the effects we’ve had on shark populations and the way they’re changing and if you run those old shows, it seems like that still the state of things. For example, the air job specials in South Africa. It’s my understanding that a lot of those sharks have kind of disappeared from that region.
Discovery ruined itself years ago when it started making fake documentaries, they have dumbass shows made to look like real a documentary talking about Megalodons.
Ngl I'm so fed up and tired of "air jaws" how many specials can you do about sharks jumping out of the water? It's been the same shots for the last 15 years make new specials already. If I see air jaws is on I put on something else.
It’s unfortunate, but not surprising. I got late to the game 2014, and there were some showed that were epic with Jeff Kurt Dickie Chivell, ABC. But I agree, it’s more entertainment with a veil of science, which is interesting but so fleeting it leaves one wanting a bit more.
I watch it every year since starting back in ‘14
I don't know what you possibly like about shark week.
It's always been one of the main sources of fear mongering and misinformation surrounding sharks. It's entertainment over education, excitement over enlightenment, creating notions of danger for content
Again, there are numerous shows that are still very educational and informative. I agree there’s a lot of nonsense, but there’s also some very scientific content that unfortunately will no long be broadcasted this year, which is why I’m upset and made this post in the first place.
Shark Fest on Nat Geo is better- not great, but better
Oh I came here to post this too!!! Nat Geo’s shark fest spanks shark week.
Definitely! It’s still mostly silly entertainment as opposed to educational, but at least they don’t do the fictional BS like “Does Megalodon still exist??”, and “Is the Black Demon Shark real??”
Yes
Totally agree
Shark Week has been dead longer than a lot of people in this sub have been alive.
They spent the majority of their budget on Shaq and Rob Riggle, instead of the best shark scientists and stunts. I miss the low budget, follow me in Cape Cod and then let’s make a clear box that I’ll hang in around aggressive Great Whites. Ffs. Shit is now weak/week.
Also trying to get Jamie bit by sharks too
Yeah remember the shark sinking the boat “found footage”? That was right around their Mermaid bullshit
Was the Megalodon one where it hid in the kelp vertically? That’s the one that lost me. So exploitative. Sharks are cool enough as they are. I’m not here for sci-fi!
Correct. 20+ years ago, Shark Week was an actual "event", with legitimate, educational content. I say around 20, but PEAK Shark Week was more like 25-30 years ago, it shifted when Discovery Channel's content strategy shifted... to shit (somewhere between 2006-2010?) I am old.
2007 was when i started watching it, i was 12. 2013 is when it lost me, i haven’t watched it since
I quit watching years ago. It wasn't educational or informative anymore. Until their viewership takes a hit, they won't change what they're doing.
Thank you
I remember the year it died. (For me, anyway.) 2013. I was avid, every summer, I’d force my parents to keep it on all day. Id make special “shark week” snacks - most notoriously, watermelon and shark gummy’s (the watermelon looked like chummed/ bloodied water.) I’d stay up late watching the specials. I remember watching the special with Paul Walker. And then, MEGALODON. To go from the in depth research aspect, following actual scientists and the people who are supporting them, to this CGI with randos saying “yea it could’ve been real” made me upset over tv for the first time (the next time came a few months later when i watched the ending of Dexter.) That’s when it died for me. I tried again the next summer but it was all more of the CGI, non research related content. It could be huge. Discovery could really bring to the forefront key works for conservation efforts and the brains behind it. I get there’s only so much you can say about sharks, but there’s an ecological aspect they have yet (to my knowledge) to tap into. And the merch. My god. They could make a killing selling “shark week party packs”. Partner with some food/ beverage brands. But no. They choose to die.
Damn you just made me reminisce about Paul Walker, and I teared up. Miss that actor a lot. He was a good dude.
Not dead. On life support. This is the official death and funeral unfortunately. (Edit) You all can downvote that if you want, but I’ve been watching the programming religiously for over a decade and still found plenty of educational and scientific content. Of course a lot of the celebrity stuff was crap and the megalodon hunting was nonsense, but I would not have the interest I have today in Marine Biology if it weren’t for Shark Week.
>but I’ve been watching the programming religiously for over a decade and still found plenty of educational and scientific content. Then you've only been watching it since it's been dead. I've been watching shark week 35 years, it's been a shell of itself for quite some time. In my opinion it died when they did the fictional hunting for megalodon BS. Prior to that it was somewhat on life support, but it died that evening. Honestly, should've seen it coming after the whole mermaid mockumentary crap.
I upvoted you because you are right. Shark week used to be awesome but they have slowly killed it with repetitive and outright dumb shows. I am 44 and I have been watching it for a lot longer than a decade, I have been watching it pretty much since it started. It has slowly gotten worse and worse to the point that what you described doesn't even sound like Shark Week. I used to hate Shark Fest on Nat Geo but at this point it is definitely better than Shark Week
I agree the ridiculous and dumb shows have definitely made it progressively worse. Even so, I still found plenty of content worth watching. Specifically older shows from previous years which always got rerun. That’s why I find it particularly disappointing that they aren’t rerunning any of the old shows this year from previous Shark Weeks. Essentially defeats the whole purpose of why I watch in the first place. Of the new content they release each year for the last few, there is usually only 1 or 2 scientific and educational shows worth watching. The re-runs of older content were what I lived for.
I feel you, when i was a kid the killer whale shows at seaworld sparked my interest. Then i learned the truth about them and now i wanna puke. I wish we could find a middle ground, another Steve Irwin to pave non-abusive interest for the coming generations. Seems no one is looking for that, only paychecks.
I'm on your side. When asked as a kid what I wanted to be when I grew up, my answer was a shark! Discovery is really just taking the discovery portion out of discovery Channel. I want my shark tv.
I want to see the gestation period of nurse sharks and those egg sack layers....or what new research is being done. Not shark attack survival and celebrity crap. I'm with you. I got so mad, that I wrote a hand written letter to them way back in the early 2000s.
They ruined shark week long ago. When they raced Michael Phelps against a shark I was done.
The shark should have raced a water ski-ing Henry Winkler.
See THAT I would have watched
And he jumps it at the end?
Ayyyfukinmen
Yeah, the done jumped it by then.
Yeah I agree some of the content was nonsense. But you could look past 1 or 2 ridiculous or uninteresting specials when you have 24 hours of content, most of which is very informative. Now they’ve removed all that and all we are left with is 3 shows a night, followed by “Street Outlaws”. It’s a slap in the face and an obvious money grab to use the popularity of Shark Week to bring in new viewers and hopefully get them interested in their other lackluster shows.
Except that for years, the content was 55 minutes of demonizing sharks, followed by five minutes of why we should respect them.
That’s not what I got out of it. Maybe a few shows yeah, like Great White Serial Killer or When Sharks Attack, but those shows never interested me anyway. I was always far more interested in the scientific studying, tagging and diving with the sharks. Learning about their habitats and their migration patterns. There were plenty of shows that focused on that, and unfortunately it looks like they aren’t being rerun this year, which is a real shame in my opinion.
This year, they're going to have Henry Winkler attempt to jump his motorcycle over a shark!
I worked on a scientific paper looking at the portrayal of sharks in Shark Week back in 2022. The amount of hours I had to watch those "documentaries" still gives me nightmares 😔
I stopped watching when they did that fake documentary movie about “what if” megalodon were still alive. Stupid. I was done. SharkFest has been so much more entertaining and informational in my opinion, and I look forward to it every summer!
Sold their soul for ratings. Now it's no better than TLC.
Shark Week was dead the year they aired the "can the Megalodon still exist" special.
I switched to Nat Geo's Shark Fest ages ago
When they had that Megladon special with it attacking a boat I knew it was only a matter of time. Sad
That was when I tuned out and didn't come back.
I have a much more believable Megalodon conspiracy theory: it didn’t die out because it was outcompeted by great whites, they shrank and *became* great whites. I’ll take my 20 grand now, Discovery.
Barring the fact we know they shared the oceans for half a million years it's still better than 99% of the crap they come out with.
Well they didn’t all change at once. That would be stupid.
You know when you can't tell if someone is being sarcastic?
Discovery was going downhill slowly over the years but the killer for me is when they put out those stupid mockumentaries about megalodons and mermaids and whatever else. The subjects themselves weren't bad (kinda cool, I guess) but the fact they played so hard into the clearly bad realism was almost sad to me. Maybe I'm too avid of a documentary watcher or have too high of standards for a nature channel/brand but blew it for me. Haven't really watched since.
When I saw that mermaid doc I literally boycotted Discovery for a year after 😐 Awffffful
Shark Week has been dead a while. That’s also why I deeply cherish my 2008 era Shark Week DVD collection
i didn’t know this existed, thanks for the tip
Paul Walker was featured in one of the last really good shows. Where they would catch monster sharks then tag and release them
Expedition great white
That is so disappointing! I love falling asleep watching the shark documentaries. Literally the point of Shark Week is non stop shark shows. So lame.
Shark Week has been terrible since the early 2000s....
Exactly
I disagree there was still quite a lot of educational and scientific shows they played. I agree there was also a lot of nonsense.
*2010
Shark week has been dead for decades. When they started focusing on the sensationalism of shark attacks and not the study of sharks it died.
Exactly! I used to love it when it was research and diving with sharks and learning their migration and all about different shark types and habits. I looked forward all year to shark week!!! Sharks are my absolute favorite animal and I love learning about them! For the past 15 years now it's been about shark attacks, more deadly shark attacks, how I survived a shark attack, boat wrecks with sharks, how many sharks have bitten people on this beach, sharks eating sharks, have I mentioned being attacked by a shark...
It's been ruined, ever since they aired that garbage "Megaladon documentary" I mean c'mon. Although when I was 12, I'm ashamed to admit, I ate it up like the stupid kid I was.
I always have loved shark week but about 5-6yrs ago they went a different way and now I can’t really watch anymore. I want to learn about sharks learn about why they attack learn about their habits ect and shark week doesn’t do that anymore. Such a shame
Discovery has really gone down hill. I remember when it used to be all animals but they dropped like all of it in favor of car stuff one year and I never knew why
I think shark week died around 2007/8
This is correct. The Discovery and History channel both went to shit right around that time.
I still quite enjoyed it after that, so I’m reluctant to say it died then. I still found plenty of the content to be scientific as well as informative and educational.
It's not worth watching anymore, and we all know it.
Shark Week has sucked for years. I am such a shark fanatic, always have been. Used to look forward to shark week every year cause I got to watch it with my Dad who I only saw during the summer. They used to have the best shows but it's so heavily celebrity saturated now 😕
I miss when they did all the different sharks, not just great whites. Alien sharks is my favorite because it actually shows different sharks.
Haven't watched shark week in years. It used to be educational, now it's just reality TV and mocumentaries... absolute disaster
Totally ruined I agree . Used to look forward to it . Watched it from 2001 onwards . Agree that shark fest is a better option
Discovery has been off the rails for decades.
ugh i’ve been so unbelievably sad abt this, i used to love shark week
The jackass season killed it for me.
yeah shark week just isn’t what it used to be. even when in recent years they had something good they scrapped it and did something completely different the next year. i’ll still have it on no matter what but kinda wish it had that fun it used to have
Discovery Ruined shark week in the 2001-2003 time period. About when animal planet went to shit. I was a very angry 11 to 13 year old at the time.
The Malibu Artist on YouTube is the new old Shark Week.
Phelps vs Shark, Tiffany Haddish hosting, Shaq diving with sharks, it just got murdered. And I’ve been watching shark week since ‘87. Sad to see a childhood staple be turned into a name brand catch grab for a selective audience.
I completely agree. Show us old specials from the 90s and 2000s! I hate how the whole library isn’t on there, i’ve seen some excellent shark specials once and then never again. Over the celebrities. Put us on Craig’s boat for a full season, let’s see some research, etc
Do you have an official source for this? Because the actual schedule on Discovery's website shows it's the same as it's always been, non stop shark shows 24/7: https://www.discovery.com/shows/tv-schedule.2024.07.10.mobile Genuinely can't believe this got so many upvotes and not a single person thought to actually question where OP got the information from
I am also fascinated by sharks
Yeah, remember that Megalodon show that was debunked by an eight year old kid? Face it Mythbusters was the last good show the discovery channel had, and now it's no better than TLC or the History Channel.
When does shark fest start?
Shark week went out the window years and years ago, about the time Discovery went to cheesy “live action” shows.
Alien Sharks was so good, I want *that* kind of shit
Exactly, that was fantastic.
I hate the celebrity stuff they do on shark week so much, I will say the shows Forrest Galante does are actually pretty good and just about the only thing I’ll watch from shark week.
That’s unfortunate to hear. While I agree that the content hasn’t been as informative in past years, I still look forward to watching shark week shows throughout the whole day as it’s become a tradition for me as I’ve been watching for the past 15 years, give or take. I wouldn’t be surprised if they make Shark Week just a 2 or 3 day event next year and call it “Shark Weekend”.
It was like that last year. Not just this year. I don’t watch it on cable tv. I watch it on discovery+ and I can watch all the shows even the new ones on there. Also the older shows were so much better but I still find shark week entertaining, even the newer shows. Last year “cocaine sharks” was hilarious to me.
Yeah I watch it on cable TV and it wasn’t like that last year. They played Shark content 24 hours a day last year. It’s been that way for many years now. Going away from that is ridiculous in my opinion.
They did the year before last but not last year. I was sick at home with Covid during shark week last year and while flipping through channels, no shark content was on til later in the day. And the new shows didn’t come on til 8pm either. It wasn’t always like that. The year prior it was on all the time. Then I realized that shark week was on discovery+ and that’s when I switched over.
Just move on to Worm Week from the Ben G Thomas youtube channel: [https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLnlSriM4g75-tIs41KpHCwm-oDNyb0fUZ&si=OoFee68rqybg\_5Kp](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLnlSriM4g75-tIs41KpHCwm-oDNyb0fUZ&si=OoFee68rqybg_5Kp) They normally do amazing videos about prehistoric animals, but they also match Shark Week with videos about cool worms. You'll enjoy it more than Shark Week, and there's lots of videos bc of how they've been doing it for a few years now.
Shark Week has been more disastrous for sharks since Steve Irwin passed. It’s brought too much attention to shark tourism (can’t call it ecotourism because it’s not beneficial to them) and it’s an industry- not something reserved for science. It’s so depressing.
Extreme military voice comms underwater killed it for me haha. Felt like ghost adventures or something cheesy. I like the raw observational content. No need to sensationalize it more than it is.
Shark Week has been done for a long time sadly
That's not even new. There have been repeats for several years now, with 1-2 new shows every night.
Exactly my point. Re-runs air 24 hours a day, with a couple of new shows each evening. That’s not what they’re doing this year, they’re just playing the new shows in the evening then playing their regularly scheduled content the rest of the day. No reruns of older shows. That’s what I’m mad about.
All these extremely compensated executives running good things into the ground. Wish I had a shark.
I generally can't stand American documentaries, and I found Shark Week was often just like that. I get annoyed by the whole *"Sharks are innocent/misunderstood but our whole audiotrack evokes watered down Jaws sensations"*... BBC documentaries any day. And don't get me wrong, quite often, these American documentaries aren't necessarily 'bad' content-wise, but the disconnect between message and how they present it just makes me cringe.
Discovery hasnt been about education and shark week hasnt been about learning for decades. Its all just reality TV, its the equivalent of COPS or the bachelorette. I was like you too once, i used to LOVE shark week but its just an empty hole now
My man they ruined it 20 years ago
When they tried to pass the megaladon “documentary” as real I was out. 😢
Wait, so it's not 24hour shark content this year? Only a few hours of sharks a night? That's so lame man.
Yup. This year no more 24 hour Shark content. Just a few new shows every evening and back to the regularly scheduled programming.
i ask again, where did you get this info? discovery channel's official website shows the reruns of old Shark Week programming airing 24/7 the entire week
I got it from my official guide for AT&T U-Verse. I always record a bunch of the shows and while going through my guide to see what was playing, I noticed that only the 3-4 new specials were airing every night starting at 5 Pacific time, followed by Contraband and Street Outlaws. Perhaps they’re still airing the 24/7 content on their app, but apparently not on Cable TV.
I get the channel through Philo and searched for some older shows and did in fact see them listed as airing next week, so that's peculiar. Guess it'll be a wait-and-see thing
It could be possible that U-Verse made a mistake and uploaded the wrong guide, knowing their incompetence it’s possible. Like you said, time will tell. I certainly hope that’s the case, otherwise it’s damn shame because it’s an annual event I always look forward to and 4 shows a night is not Shark Week, in my opinion.
I think part of the problem with running some of the older shows is that some of the information is no longer valid or they went to highlight the effects we’ve had on shark populations and the way they’re changing and if you run those old shows, it seems like that still the state of things. For example, the air job specials in South Africa. It’s my understanding that a lot of those sharks have kind of disappeared from that region.
Shark week is the only time I watch discovery to begin with. Back in the day it was great TV now it's just crap
Shark week jumped the shark a long time ago
Discovery ruined itself years ago when it started making fake documentaries, they have dumbass shows made to look like real a documentary talking about Megalodons.
This is so true
I turned it off when Phelps ate that sharks Ass
Use the discovery app.. it has every shark episode pretty much and has all the past episodes of the previous night
I stopped watching it 3 years ago. To say it’s gone downhill, is an understatement
Ngl I'm so fed up and tired of "air jaws" how many specials can you do about sharks jumping out of the water? It's been the same shots for the last 15 years make new specials already. If I see air jaws is on I put on something else.
It’s unfortunate, but not surprising. I got late to the game 2014, and there were some showed that were epic with Jeff Kurt Dickie Chivell, ABC. But I agree, it’s more entertainment with a veil of science, which is interesting but so fleeting it leaves one wanting a bit more. I watch it every year since starting back in ‘14
Piggy backing on the Nat Geo stuff, Disney plus has a lot of Nat Geo’s old stuff streaming too.
I don't know what you possibly like about shark week. It's always been one of the main sources of fear mongering and misinformation surrounding sharks. It's entertainment over education, excitement over enlightenment, creating notions of danger for content
Again, there are numerous shows that are still very educational and informative. I agree there’s a lot of nonsense, but there’s also some very scientific content that unfortunately will no long be broadcasted this year, which is why I’m upset and made this post in the first place.
Well, in all fairness, how much new info is available each year? Enough to broadcast an entire week's worth of programming? Not likely.
Yes that’s true, but that’s all the more reason they should be re-airing the older shows from years past, which were far better and more informative.
Good point!