Sharkfest

Stories

The sharks are back — big, scary and maybe magnificent

Sharks are ready to consume our TV sets … again.
The 33rd Shark Week will be July 11-18 on Discovery and Discovery+. Spanning that and beyond is the eighth SharkFest, July 5-31 on National Geographic, Aug. 2-13 on Nat Geo Wild, and on Disney+.
Along the way, we’ll hear ominous things. A shark, one victim says, is “a submarine with teeth.” And it’s a big, fast one at that. “The first great white shark I saw was like a freight train,” said Valerie Taylor (shown here in the 1970s), who has spent generations surrounded by sharks.
But we’ll also hear actor Chris Hemsworth praise “the serene beauty of this magnificent creature.” Read more…

By Mike Hughes / June 26, 2021
Stories

She’s achieved her shark-filled dreams

Other kids might pester Santa with trivial requests for ponies and unicorns and such.
Kori Garza, however, was more original. At 3, she plunked on his lap and asked for a great white shark.
She didn’t get it, which was probably for the best. It would be odd, she now grants, “to have a great white swimming in the bathtub.”
But it was a fine start for her current life: Garza (shown here) is a shark expert and the central figure in “World’s Biggest Tiger Shark?” That’s at 8 p.m. Sunday (July 19), launching National Geographic’s “Sharkfest.” (See overview under “stories” and schedule under “quick news and comments.) Read more…

By Mike Hughes / July 16, 2020
Stories

“Sharkfest” attacks the TV void

As summer nears its mid-point, TV clearly needs a boost.
There are big holes in the schedules and in our days. What can fill the void? Well … sharks — ots and lots of them, in bursts:
– Sunday (July 19): “Sharkfest” starts on the National Geographic Channel, opening at 8 p.m. with Kori Garza (shown here) hoping to re-unite with a mega-shark. It continue there for three weeks, with 17 new shows and endless reruns.
– Aug. 9: NatGeo Wild takes over, with two weeks of reruns … and Discovery begins its Shark Week Read more…

By Mike Hughes / July 12, 2020
Stories

Sharks gobble TV time, but we barely know them

There are some ways in which great white sharks are different from Victorian-era poets.
Well, there are probably a lot of ways, but we’ll settle on these:
— Poets, like other mammals, reach full size by early adulthood; sharks, like other fish, don’t. “They never stop growing,” said Chris Lowe, a marine biology professor featured in cable’s “Sharkfest.”
— We already know most of the details about old poets; great whites are another matter. “Biologists thought they were coastal,” Lowe said. “Boy were we wrong about that.” Read more…

By Mike Hughes / July 17, 2019