'Shark Week' 2016 News: Is the Hype Legit? Critic Says 'Megaldon' is Fake
Critic Reveals How Discovery Stages Its Annual Shark Week Shows
The annual Shark Week is about to start. A lot of fans of the annual event are excited to watch the hour-long specials that will be featured on Discovery. Said to be one of the contributors to pop culture, Shark Week is considered a phenomenon and has proven itself to be a huge contributor to the ratings of the network.
However, several shows on Shark Week are said to be just made up by people to attract viewers. These include "Megalodon: The Monster Shark Lives" and its follow-up, "Megalodon: The New Evidence."
Fake 'Megaldon'?
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Discovery does not reveal to viewers if they have creative control over their content, and some of these shows may actually be a work of fiction. Some speculate that the scientists on the show are, in fact, actors, and are following a script to attract more audiences.
Discovery has also done this with not just Shark Week but with other special shows as well, where the scientist tried to get himself eaten by an Anaconda.
A Critic's Opinion
David Shiffman, a student in the University of Miami, has worked on debunking and double checking facts shown on Discovery. He has a keen interest in sharks and is taking a Ph.D. course that focuses on shark biology and conversation. During Shark Week, he usually live-tweets if the shows being aired contain hard facts or not.
Shiffman has also mentioned that he is familiar with how Discovery makes biologists take part in their documentaries with misinformation. Every year, he evaluates the line-up with his own structured rating.
He marks a certain program "Watch" if the show has great accuracy in science and natural history. His next rating, "Maybe Watch," is given to shows that seem to care less about the accuracy of the content that is being shown. Lastly, the "Do Not Watch" is labeled for shows where the content is just out of this world.
Even though he is very skeptic, Shifmann says that the line-up for this year's Shark Week is pretty solid.
