Every week, Netflix unveils its Top 10 lists for the week before, ranking TV shows and movies by viewership. One of this week’s most-streamed movies is Shark Whisperer, a documentary about marine conservationist Ocean Ramsey (her given name), who regularly swims with sharks and encourages others to do so to educate people. That film, along with another new shark-related title, the reality competition series All the Sharks (currently trending at No. 2 in Kids TV on the platform), arrived in the past few weeks, giving audiences a jump on some early Shark Week programming.
Except, as you’re probably aware, Shark Week is a Discovery thing and is back for its 37th year. Shark Week officially runs this year from July 20-26 and features more than 20 new specials or shows about one of the most deadly and/or misunderstood creatures around. However, the franchise has been so successful that it’s no surprise other platforms, like Netflix, want a piece of the action.
Not only has Netflix released these two original titles to great success in the past two weeks, but you can also catch all four Jaws films on the platform starting on July 15 (that film is celebrating its 50th anniversary and is also available on Peacock as of this summer, which makes it feel like an especially momentous season for sharks).
You can also catch a documentary, Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story, about the making of the film, which streams on Hulu and Disney Plus this Friday. That film is part of Nat Geo’s Sharkfest slate of programming, which has been running this week and is a different beast from Shark Week… even though it’s all about the same beast. (It really feels like ABC missed an opportunity by not airing new episodes of Shark Tank this summer. Someone dropped the ball.)
After 37 years of programming, it’s hard to believe Shark Week hasn’t actually jumped the shark (although there is a new show hosted by Tom Bergeron called Dancing With Sharks that actually features divers «dancing» with sharks… but I admit my curiosity is piqued).
Shark Week appears stronger than ever and seems to have unofficially become Shark Month thanks to the shows that Netflix and other platforms have already released. To be clear, Netflix never officially said it’s a Shark Week competitor; it’s just been savvy about scheduling its new programs when people might be looking for shark content — and it turns out there’s room for all of them. If we’ve learned anything in the past 50 years, it’s that it’s never a bad thing to have a bigger boat.
