English Entertainment
Discovery unveils programming lineup for ‘Shark Week 2021’
Mumbai: Discovery channel on Thursday announced the full programming lineup for its successful IP “Shark Week 2021” ahead of its 10 July premiere on discovery+.
The show which returns for its 33rd year will have more hours of shark programming than ever before and feature celebrity co-stars including Tiffany Haddish, Brad Paisley, JB Smoove, William Shatner, Eli Roth, the cast of “Jackass”, Noah Schnapp, Robert Irwin, Ian Ziering, Tara Reid, Dr Sandra Lee, Josh Gates, Snoop Dogg, Mark Rober, Chris Rose, David Dobrik and Kinga Philipps, the channel said in a statement.
Leading up to Shark Week, Animal Planet, Discovery Channel and discovery+ will celebrate with a shark movie festival across three platforms with titles like “Crickey! It’s Shark Week”, “Expedition Unknown”, “Sharkadelic Summer 2 ft. Snoop Dogg”, “Extinct or Alive: The Lost Shark”, “Shark Week Best in Show”, “Alien Sharks: First Contact”, amongst others.
The show will take viewers to new locations to study and record new shark behaviours including Bull shark hunting patterns and new heights – capturing the highest breach ever recorded as Discovery celebrates these brilliant creatures, it added.
Check out Shark Week ’21 lineup below:
Return To Headstone Hell – Streaming 10 July exclusively on discovery+
Dr Riley Elliott returns to Australia’s Norfolk Island with underwater cinematographer Kina Scollay to see what happens when the island’s tiger sharks go head-to-head with migrating great whites over an unusual food source: cow carcasses.
Crikey! It’s Shark Week – Streaming 11 July exclusively on discovery+
Robert Irwin comes face to face with a Great White Shark for the first time ever with shark conservationists Paul de Gelder and Madison Stewart. Following his father’s footsteps, he will get as close as possible to these incredible creatures to determine which apex predator reigns supreme – Crocs or Great Whites? Produced by Eureka Productions. It will also be airing 23 August at 8pm on Animal Planet.
Expedition Unknown: Shark Trek – Streaming 12 July exclusively on discovery+
Josh Gates links up with his childhood hero, William Shatner, to boldly go where Shark Week has never gone before. The mission: enter shark-infested waters to understand the nature of fear and come face to face with an apex predator. This is Shark Trek. Produced by Ping Pong Productions. It will also be airing 23 August at 7pm on Discovery Channel.
Stranger Sharks- Streaming 13 July exclusively on discovery+
Mark Rober and Noah Schnapp from Stranger Things are teaming up for the ultimate Shark Week adventure…exploring abandoned undersea ruins and man-made artificial reefs searching for the strangest sharks in the ocean. Produced by Spoke Studios.
Great White Comeback – Streaming 14 July exclusively on discovery+
In 2017 one of the strangest ocean mysteries occurred in South Africa when an entire Great White population disappeared overnight. Alison Towner and her team, Enrico Gennari and Andy Casagrande head out on an epic investigation to find the missing Great Whites of Seal Island. Produced by Hazmat Productions.
Shark Academy – Streaming 15 July exclusively on discovery+
Shark Academy follows eight men and women on an intense six-week crash course to secure a coveted crew spot on shark scientist Dr Riley Elliott’s next great shark diving expedition. It’s an opportunity of a lifetime for these shark enthusiasts with non-traditional backgrounds to leap ahead in the competitive world of shark research, embarking on the adventure of a lifetime in hopes of making their dreams a reality. Produced by Double Act.
Sharkadelic Summer 2 ft. Snoop Dogg – Streaming 16 July exclusively on discovery+
Sharkadelic is back to find out if this summer will be the sharkiest on record. Snoop Dogg breaks down the craziest encounters, the wildest and most unpredictable reactions to discover if America is once again ground zero for the shark superstorm. Produced by Anomaly Entertainment. It will also be airing 27 August at 7 pm on Discovery Channel.
The Real Sharknado- Streaming 17 July exclusively on discovery+
We have all seen the movies, sharks jumping into boats, circling in tornados, and risking their lives to attack humans. Could these shark feasts happen? Ian Ziering and Tara Reid pick up their chainsaws once again – this time with the help of Dr. Tristan Guttridge and to see if a real Sharknado could happen. Produced by Ping Pong Productions.
Extinct or Alive: Jaws of Alaska- Airing 24 August at 8pm on Animal Planet
Wildlife biologist Forrest Galante travels the world in search of rare and elusive wildlife, including those lost to science, and cold-water sharks.
Extinct or Alive: The Lost Shark- Airing 25 August at 8pm on Animal Planet
Wildlife biologist, Forrest Galante, is in the Maldives in search of a supposedly extinct shark. Unidentified sharks in the area have led many to believe the Pondicherry is alive.
Extinct or Alive: Land of The Lost Sharks- Airing August 26 at 8 pm on Animal Planet
Biologist Forrest Galante dives into treacherous, shark-infested waters in the southern hemisphere to rediscover three unique sharks lost to science for as long as 100 years.
Alien Sharks: First Contact- Airing August 27 at 8 pm on Animal Planet
Researchers try to make contact with bizarre alien sharks lurking in the deep. Pursuing the frilled shark, sleeper shark and cookie-cutter shark brings unexpected encounters.
Tiffany Haddish Does Shark Week (Special) – Airing 24 August at 7 pm on Discovery Channel
Tiffany Haddish hosts Shark Week! While her fantasy was to uncover the secrets of shark sex sailing on the fanciest yachts surrounded by friendly sea creatures and pampered by a handsome merman, she’s joined by Dr. Toby Daly-Engel, Dr. Craig O’Connell, Alannah Vellacott for a very sharky wake-up call. Produced by Will Packer Will Packer Media and Anomaly Entertainment.
Brad Paisley’s Shark Country- Airing 25 August at 7 pm on Discovery Channel
Country star Brad Paisley and comedian JB Smoove meet in the Bahamas to attract new fans, Sharks! With Dr. Austin Gallagher’s help, they put Brad’s musical talents to the test in shark-infested waters to see how sound can attract or repel sharks. Produced by Critical Content.
Shark Week Best in Show – Airing 26 August at 7 pm on Discovery Channel
Discover everything that has happened in the world of sharks this year including unbelievable viral videos, big news stories and the latest in cutting-edge shark science. Produced by Main Event Media.
UK: The aerial is losing its grip. As broadband becomes the default way Britons watch television, the UK is edging towards a decisive, and divisive, question: should Freeview be switched off by 2034? The issue, highlighted in reporting by The Guardian, has exposed deep fault lines over access, affordability and the future of public service broadcasting.
For nearly 25 years, Freeview has delivered free-to-air television from the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 to almost every corner of the country. Even now, it remains the UK’s largest TV platform, used in more than 16m homes and on around 10m main household sets. Yet the same broadcasters that built it are now pressing for its closure within eight years.
Their case rests on a structural shift in viewing. Smart TVs, superfast broadband and the Netflix-led streaming boom have pulled audiences online. Advertising economics have followed. By 2034, the number of homes using Freeview as their main TV set is forecast to fall from a peak of almost 12m in 2012 to fewer than 2m, making digital terrestrial television, or DTT, increasingly costly to sustain.
But critics say the rush to switch off risks abandoning those least able, or least willing, to move online.
“I don’t want to be choosing apps and making new accounts,” says Lynette, 80, from Kent. “It is time-consuming and irritating trying to work out where I want to be, to remember the sequence of clicks, with hieroglyphics instead of words. If I make a mistake I have to start again.”
Lynette is among nearly 100,000 people who have signed a “save Freeview” petition launched by campaign group Silver Voices. She fears the government is about to “take [Freeview] away from me and others who either don’t like, can’t afford, or can’t use online versions”.
Official figures underline the fault lines. A report commissioned by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport estimates that by 2035, 1.8m homes will still depend on Freeview. Ofcom’s analysis shows those households are more likely to be disabled, older, living alone, female, and based in the north of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Freeview is owned by the public service broadcasters through Everyone TV, which also operates Freesat and the newer streaming platform Freely. After two years of review, DCMS is expected to set out its position soon, drawing on three options proposed by Ofcom: a costly upgrade of Freeview’s ageing technology; maintaining a bare-bones service with only core PSB channels; or a full switch-off during the 2030s.
The broadcasters have rallied behind the third option. They argue that 2034 is the logical cut-off, when transmission contracts with network operator Arqiva expire. By then, they say, the cost of broadcasting to a dwindling audience will far outweigh the returns from TV advertising.
Ofcom agrees a crunch point is approaching. In July, the regulator warned of a “tipping point” within the next few years, after which it will no longer be commercially viable for broadcasters to carry the costs of DTT.
Others see risks beyond economics. Questions remain over whether internet TV can reliably deliver emergency broadcasts, such as the daily Covid updates, in the way that universally available DTT can. The UK radio industry has also warned that an internet-only future for TV could push up distribution costs and force some radio stations off air if PSBs no longer share Arqiva’s mast network.
“It is a political hot potato,” says Dennis Reed, founder of Silver Voices, who says he has “dissociated” his organisation from the government’s stakeholder forum, which he believes is “heavily biased” towards streaming.
The Future TV Taskforce, representing the PSBs, counters that moving online could “close the digital divide once and for all”. “We want to be able to plan to ensure that no one is left behind,” a spokesperson says, adding that rising DTT costs could otherwise mean cuts to programme budgets.
The numbers show the scale of the challenge. Of the 1.8m Freeview-dependent homes projected for 2035, around 1.1m are expected to have broadband but not use it for TV. The remaining 700,000 are forecast to lack a broadband connection altogether.
Veterans of the analogue switch-off, completed in 2012 after 76 years, recall similar fears of “TV blackout chaos”. Around 6 per cent of households were labelled “digital refuseniks”, yet a targeted help scheme and a national campaign, fronted by a robot called Digit Al voiced by Matt Lucas, delivered a largely smooth transition.
This time, the BBC is less keen to foot the bill. Tim Davie, the outgoing director general, has said the corporation should not fund a comparable support programme for a Freeview switch-off.
Research for Sky by Oliver & Ohlbaum suggests that with early awareness campaigns and digital inclusion measures, only about 330,000 households would ultimately need hands-on help ahead of a 2034 shutdown.
Meanwhile, viewing habits continue to fragment. Audience body Barb says 7 per cent of UK households no longer own a TV set, choosing to watch on other devices. In December, YouTube overtook the BBC’s combined channels in total UK viewing across TVs, smartphones and tablets, albeit measured at a minimum of three minutes.
That shift may accelerate. YouTube has recently blocked Barb and its partner Kantar from accessing viewing session data, limiting transparency just as online platforms consolidate power.
“When the government chose British Satellite Broadcasting as the ‘winner’ in satellite TV it was Rupert Murdoch’s Sky instead that came out on top,” says a senior TV executive quoted by The Guardian. “There already is such an outsider ready to be the winner in the transition to internet TV; it is YouTube.”
Freeview’s future now hangs on a familiar British dilemma: modernise fast and risk exclusion, or protect universality and pay the price. Either way, the aerial’s days as king of the living room look numbered.
