Sharks are really, really cool. They've been around about 400 million years. There's over
400 species of them, and they even have the ability to detect electromagnetic fields in
the water. All of which is why it's so baffling that Discovery Channel's Shark Week has so
little biology in it. Recently, it's become more like a reality tv show than a series
of nature documentaries. And in the past two years, it's veered into really weird territory,
with Discovery Channel actually deceiving viewers about sharks. It wasn't always like
this. Back in 1988 when it started, by all accounts the shows were great and educational.
But slowly it's become more and more sensational. In the last few years, most of its shows have
been about Great Whites attacking humans. Surely there's something thrilling about that.
But there's something backwards about it too. Shark attacks are really rare. And in truth,
we're a bigger threat to sharks than they are to us. These shows about shark attacks
are great for making people scared of sharks. They don't do much for making people care
about them. Now if Shark Week was just sensationalized, that might be disappointing but tolerable.
But last year, Discovery Channel entered new territory, completely making up a story. They
aired a documentary with a scientist who told us that there was a 100-foot shark called
Megalodon roaming the oceans, and it killed 4 people off the coast of South Africa last
year. "Zoom in. Once more. And to the right. I know it's kind of blurry but look at that. Look at that.
That's a fin!" But here's the thing. The scientist was an actor, the footage was faked, and the
deaths didn't even happen. Viewers had no way of knowing this. There was just a disclaimer
saying that the scenes were dramatized. All shark researchers agree that megalodon went
extinct 2 million years ago, but an online poll afterwards showed that 73% of viewers thought it was real.
This was the highest rated episode in Shark Week history, which
is probably why Discovery is doubling down with fake shark programming this year. First,
in a promo, they hoaxed viewers by claiming there was a shark in Lake Ontario, which they
had to admit was fake after Canadian officials believed it and started getting worried. Then
they kicked things off with a new fake documentary, Shark of Darkness, about a non-existant 35-foot
white shark. "What made this incident particularly horrifying was that the attacks were captured
on camera." Featuring another fake scientist from a fake research institute, blaming a
fake shark for a death that didn't happen. Finally, they're following up with a megalodon
sequel that claims to have new evidence. The worst part about all of this? Discovery viewers
have a real appetite for actual science. When the channel debuted BBC's series, Life, it
got over 11 million viewers, more than twice as many as megalodon. Discovery calls itself
the world's #1 nonfiction media company. But it's apparently decided that the natural world
isn't interesting enough for TV.