Posted on 08/21/2012 9:14:24 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Sharks ruled the air waves as well as the ocean waves again this year.
The Discovery Channel says total viewership for its annual "Shark Week" was 21.4 million, up from 18.6 million in 2011.
The big fish also drew 1.6 million tweets, about double the volume from last year. Discovery encouraged tweeting this year with several segments in which tweets were flashed on the screen.
Shark Week, which launched 25 years ago, has become the most successful long-running cable theme week on television, remaining ahead of later descendants like "Big Cat Week" and "Tornado Week."
Discovery has produced more than 150 shark programs for the week, from documentaries on great whites like the popular "Air Jaws" to fantasy productions like this year's "Sharkzilla."
While "Shark Week" was inspired in part by the classic horror movie "Jaws," much of the programming now is designed to show sharks as part of a critical ecosystem and emphasize that it is shortsighted to randomly hunt and kill them.
Have watched several over the years and have yet to be impressed. I, for one, have yet to understand the fascination.
While “Shark Week” was inspired in part by the classic horror movie “Jaws,” much of the programming now is designed to show sharks as part of a critical ecosystem and emphasize that it is shortsighted to randomly hunt and kill them.
They’re fun to catch and are actually pretty tasty to eat, if you can get by the stink of cleaning them
Same here. You’ve seen one feeding frenzy, you’ve seen them all
It’s the vicarious thrill of seeing something dangerous while having the knowledge that you’re not in a really dangerous situation. People watch horror movies, or ride rollercoasters for the same reason. You get a bit of the adrenaline rush from a real fight or flight situation, but because you know you are safe, you probably won’t soil your drawers.
Many years ago I didn’t have cable. It was such a treat to go to a motel and watch “Great Chefs” and “Shark Week” because they had the Discovery Channel.
“Same here. Youve seen one feeding frenzy, youve seen them all”
You frequent a political website so you see this kind of thing every day.
“This was no boating accident!”
I agree. I'll take Big Cat Week anytime, wherever that might be. Can't be Animal Planet....AP used to show actual animal programs, but now it's all reality shows about guidos building aquariums or toothless people rolling around in swamps.
ROFLMAO!! Good one.
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