GOOD BOY: Getting up-close-and-personal with a lemon shark in one of Discovery’s “Shark Week” shows. (
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Syfy’s cheesy “Sharknado” flick has thus far been the summer’s great white talking point.
The movie, which originally aired July 11, peaked at 5,000 tweets per minute — astounding numbers.
But what does that mean for Discovery’s annual “Shark Week,” which returns next Monday, Aug. 4?
Will the cult B-movie “Sharknado” take a bite out of America’s perennial summer favorite?
Discovery Channel says it’s just the opposite.
“I think [‘Sharknado’] is great for ‘Shark Week,’” says Michael Sorenson, Discovery’s senior director of development. “Trust me, if you’re hearing people talk about it, we’re talking about it as well.
“I think it just points to people’s fascinations with sharks.”
That may be so, but you have to wonder if TV viewers have already reached the pinnacle of this summer’s shark-hype curve.
But, Sorenson says, 26 years of fin-fueled “Shark Week” programming isn’t just going to roll over.
“We’ve been at the forefront,” he says. “I think [the ‘Sharknado’ excitement] just speaks to how excited people are that this kind of content is returning.
“It’s a different kind of show than the shows we put on, but I think it absolutely fuels the fire — and gets people excited again.”
Discovery is pulling out all the stops this year, with 11 hours of new “Shark Week” programming, with sensational, Syfy-like titles including “Megalodon: The Monster Shark Lives,” “Sharkpocalypse” and “Voodoo Sharks.”
But a new late-night live talk show, “Shark After Dark,” is perhaps the cable network’s boldest move.
In the vein of AMC’s “Talking Dead” or Bravo’s “Watch What Happens Live,” comedian Josh Wolf will infuse humor into recap highlights each night. It’s Discovery’s way of capitalizing on the mixture of shark appreciation and tongue-in-cheek obsession that’s made the programming week a Twitter phenomenon.
“There is a lot of humor in ‘Shark Week,’ and I think we’re trying to embrace it even more,” says Sorensen. “I think [our] Snuffy campaign — ‘It’s a bad week to be a seal, for the rest of us it’s awesome’ — just speaks to the sense of humor about ‘Shark Week’ we ourselves have ourselves, and I think that’s what people are tuning in for.”
And, if none of that works, “Shark Week” has a secret weapon borrowed from “Sharknado”: the incomparable Tara Reid.
“Tara Reid actually reached out and was like, ‘I would love to sit down and be a guest on ‘Shark After Dark,’ and tell people about how much I loved working on ‘Sharknado’ and all the things I learned about Great Whites while doing it,’ ” says Sorensen.
“ [Reid’s] publicist reached out to us and said “Hey, how do we keep this going and keep her in the fold here?’ ”