According to the programming schedule that Discovery released on social media at the end of June, there was supposed to be one new Shark Week show airing on Sunday. The show in question was Shark Academy, which is the title of a Discovery+ exclusive series. Going in to this, I figured that this was probably their way of getting more people to sign up for their streaming service. Here’s the first episode of a show on sharks, if you want more, you’ve got to sign up. But that’s not what happened at all.
I got all set up to watch the final official show of Shark Week, turned on the TV and… It was a rerun of Robert Irwin’s special from day one. I’m not sure what happened, or why there wasn’t an episode of Shark Academy on air. Maybe they ended up running it at a different time? Maybe they decided not to run it after all? Who knows. All I do know, is that until Discovery+ is available in Canada, I won’t have access to those exclusives. I hope they have that fixed by next year’s Shark Week. That being said, my husband has promised to track down some of the exclusive documentaries I was hoping to see – like Fin by Eli Roth, which has been heavily advertised on social media. I know it will make me cry, but I still want to watch it.
So even though this year’s Shark Week started with a bang and ended with a whimper, it was still an enjoyable experience all around. And just because the week is over, doesn’t mean we get to stop learning about these fin-tastic apex predators. They desperately need our protection. Let’s all do our part to keep our oceans full of sharks.
