# Shark Week (1988)

> An annual weeklong cable television event of feature programs dedicated to sharks and their behavior.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/14782

## Facts

- Seasons: 39
- Episodes: 459
- Episode runtime: 42 min
- Status: Returning Series
- Genres: documentary
- Network: Discovery
- Cast: Dwayne Johnson, Josh Gates, Rob Riggle, Shaquille O'Neal, Eli Roth, Josh Wolf, Craig O'Connell, Jeff Kurr
- TMDB rating: 7.7/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1146333/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: brisk
- Intensity: mild
- Complexity: simple
- Violence: mild
- Tone: awe-filled, adventurous, spirited, educational

## Synopsis

Shark Week (1988-present) is a United States cable documentary event created for Discovery, a long-running annual series of feature programs about sharks. Rather than a single continuing story, it is a weeklong block of standalone specials, usually broadcast in July or August, that has grown over 39 seasons into the longest-running cable programming event in history. Hosts and personalities such as Josh Gates, Eli Roth, Shaquille O'Neal and Dwayne Johnson appear across the programs, bringing field expeditions, dive footage, and close encounters with great whites, hammerheads and other predators into living rooms. Each program is built around a concrete engine: a crew heads to a remote reef or coastline, chases a sighting or a mystery about shark behavior, and returns with footage and expert interviews. The tone is awe-filled and spirited, with a mix of scientific curiosity, adrenaline and showmanship. Fans of Planet Earth, Blue Planet and Dirty Jobs will find resonance in its blend of natural wonder, host-driven exploration and popular spectacle. Its advocacy origins, aimed at respect for sharks, still shape the programming today, which now reaches over seventy countries and is promoted heavily across social networks.

## Shows like Shark Week

- [Deadliest Catch (2005)](https://ember.film/tv/2483)
- [Blue Planet II (2017)](https://ember.film/tv/64612)
- [Underdogs (2025)](https://ember.film/tv/138233)
- [Sea Monsters (2003)](https://ember.film/tv/18319)
- [Island of the Sea Wolves (2022)](https://ember.film/tv/133040)
- [Welcome to Earth (2021)](https://ember.film/tv/105758)
- [Eli Roth's History of Horror (2018)](https://ember.film/tv/70991)
- [Great Barrier Reef with David Attenborough (2015)](https://ember.film/tv/57307)
- [The Crocodile Hunter (1997)](https://ember.film/tv/1796)
- [Dinosaur Planet (2003)](https://ember.film/tv/10901)

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