The U.S. based Discovery Channel cable network celebrated its 26th annual Shark Week last week. Worldwide media celebrated sharks and ocean conservation too. Three hours of television programming for 6 nights turned into a sea of social media and the statistics are still being counted. The opening night of Shark Week was filled with controversy featuring ups and downs like ocean waves for the cable network. The problem occurred when Discover Channel led the week’s programming with a show called Megaldon: The Monster Lives. Instead of the usual documentaries on sharks, shark behaviour, and a conservation theme, they chose to produce a mockumentary complete with fake actors pretending to be shark researchers weighing in on the possibility of this prehistoric shark still being alive and swimming off the coast of South Africa. The show was the debut of shark week and hit a record number with 4.8 million people tuning in. However, it seems that most viewers and Shark Week fans were outraged that Discover Channel departed from the usual format. They took to social media and unleashed a perfect storm of protests on the Twitter account and Facebook page for both Shark Week and The Discovery Channel. Many fans were so upset, they were saying that they were done with Shark Week for good. Discovery Channel’s executives defended their choice to air a “fantasy” type show with the justification that only 5% of the Earth’s oceans have been explored and that the Megalodon controversy has been an on-going point of speculation. “It’s the ultimate ‘Shark Week’ fantasy,” said Michael Sorensen, Discovery’s senior director of programming. “The stories have been out there for years, and with 95 per cent of the ocean unexplored, who really knows?”
The question now remains, did Shark Week win or lose with their choice to air a fake documentary during a week usually filled with scientific fact? There were one million tweets counted on the opening Sunday of Shark Week and the viewership statistics were up by 141% over 2012 counts. Consider these SharkWeek social media stats: “according to Facebook, Shark Week generated 3.4 million total interactions Sunday, and #SharkWeek was the top hashtag on the platform. Meanwhile, #Megalodon, Megalodon and #SharkAfterDark all trended worldwide on Twitter, in addition to #SharkWeek, Shark Week and #AirJaws trending in the United States.” All of this seems like Shark Week is winning the time slot for cable television in America and many countries around the world, however we will never know for sure how much the mockumentary mistake cost them since the next most popular show was Wednesday’s ‘Great White Serial Killer’ programme which garnered 3.2 million viewers; considerably less than the Megalodon special. Could the network have built upon the viewers that tuned in for the Sunday night premiere?
People are more Dangerous to Sharks that Sharks are to People
What Shark Week should really focus on.
Despite drawing additional criticism from conservationists and shark researchers for using terminology such as “shark attack” and “Great White Serial Killer”, Shark Week continued to dominate social media channels for the entire week. Their nightly ‘Shark After Dark Live’ talk show hosted by a comedian was a definite social media success. The live show had a social media correspondent fielding questions from Twitter and Facebook to ask the guests celebrities and scientists on the show in real time.
No One Learns Anything from a Mockumentary
Just when you think that the cable network should have learned a lesson from the drop in viewers following the controversy of the mockumentary, it appears that they have promoted the person behind the Megalodon special and the two similar Mermaid mockumentaries that aired on Discovery’s sister channel Animal Planet. Stay tuned for more lessons about sharks, winning viewers, and social media on second and third screens.
If you require further information or have any specific questions, don’t hesitate to give a member of the GoPromotional team a call on 0800 0148 970 or simply email us today.
