‘Shark Week’ and ‘Sharkfest’ execs reveal how sharks took over summer TV – and if there’s a rivalry

They take a bite out of summer TV.  

Between Discovery’s Shark Week and National Geographic’s SharkFest, for decades, shark-related programming has been the apex predator dominating TV in the hot season.

“It is our Super Bowl,” Joseph Schneier, the SVP of Production and Development at Discovery, told The Post.

He added, “It’s our best week of the summer every year. It’s often the highest-rated thing on cable that week. We owe a little credit to ‘Jaws,’ of course.”

Last year, per Discovery, 25 million viewers tuned in to Shark Week. 

He explained that the 1975 Steven Spielberg movie “created this idea that sharks are super interesting, in the American consciousness.”

Schneier said that shark-related programming is “the perfect kickoff to the summer. As summertime comes along in America, people think about beaches, the ocean in general, and shark stories. Thirty-seven years ago, when we started, we were following a national trend that was already happening in local news.”

Shark Week on Discovery kicks off this year on Sunday, July 20 (beginning at 8 p.m. ET with “Dancing With Sharks,” hosted by former “Dancing With the Stars” host Tom Bergeron).

The inaugural Shark Week was in July 1988.

“We’ve been doing this for so long that the latest crop of scientists that we have all grew up watching Shark Week,” he explained. 

SharkFest on National Geographic started in 2012, and is currently airing with over 25 hours of shark-related programming on Nat Geo, Disney+, and Hulu. 

Per Nat Geo, last year’s SharkFest racked up over 69 million hours of viewing (including streaming on Hulu and Disney+). 

Shark Week’s programming also includes scientists and marine biologists, but it has more playful offerings such as “Dancing With Sharks,” “Great White Sex Battle,” “Attack of the Devil Shark,” and “Frankenshark,” while SharkFest’s programming has a more educational tone. 

Shark Fest’s 2025 lineup has included over 25 hours of shark-related programming, such as “Sharks of the North,” “Investigation Shark Attack,” “Sharks Up Close with Bertie Gregory,” and documentary specials about “Jaws” in honor of the movie’s 50th anniversary,” such as  “Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story.”

Janet Han Vissering, SVP of Development & Production at National Geographic Partners, also credited the movie “Jaws” for the public’s interest in sharks. 

“I think that that movie brought out this mysterious animal and brought it front and center,” she told The Post. “It became the next bit of a phenomenon over the last 50 years.”

She added that there are two main “lanes” of how people feel about sharks. 

“You either became somebody who was fascinated from a biological science approach…And it spurred this momentum for the area of shark biology to thrive. I talk to a lot of shark biologists who say, ‘Actually, ‘Jaws’ spurred me to be interested in that species.’”

As for the second “lane,” of people’s approach to sharks: “There was something to be scared for, in the ocean. I think it became something that people were fascinated about. ‘Is it coming after me? What’s my relationship to this being?’” 

She added that when people take beach vacations, the idea of the shark has become “synonymous with summer.”

Is there a rivalry between Shark Week and SharkFest? 

Han Vissering told The Post, “We try to run our own race. We want to lead, and, hopefully, people chase us, rather than us chasing after anyone else. Well done on Discovery to create Shark Week. And then, we came along.”

“We felt that there was still room for us to put together a lineup of great shark shows that had a slightly different angle, because of the access that we had with our scientists. We had a slightly different approach, and we’ve been thriving with that,” she shared.

Schneier told The Post that because the community of people who make shark shows is small, “we’re all friends.”

He added, “We believe the audience remembers who started it all…Shark programming and Shark Week are kind of synonymous now, which is amazing.”

However, he quipped, “In some ways, it’s ‘all boats rise,’ to use a water pun.” 

Schneier said that for both Shark Week and SharkFest, “The important thing is we’re [both] telling great stories about these cool creatures, and pushing a message of ocean conservation.”