Do you remember when the Discovery Channel, and all those other documentary channels, used to be good? They were reliable. As you listlessly channel surfed your way through several hundred options on your cable or satellite subscription, you knew you would always find something worth watching on those channels. Something interesting, entertaining, and also informative allowing you to improve your knowledge. Almost always these involved either sharks or Nazis.
Then something happened. The channels changed. These days they are a broadly unwatchable mess, full of lowest-common-denominator content for thickos. A pointless blob of redneck reality shows, cryptozoology, fake drama-documentaries, and sensationalist alien nonsense. They are about as informative as reading a box of cornflakes, unless you get your kicks from masturbating furiously while watching a fellow prepper count his tins of food in his bunker.
One beacon of hope remains, and even that has been shaky in recent years, Shark Week. It has now been running for an incredible 35 years. This year they gave it a revamp and leveraged their Warner Bros. connections to cross promote with Meg 2: The Trench and bring in a new host in the form of Jason Momoa. The result was a ratings success.
Shark Week had its highest-rated premiere night in three years and was viewed by more than 5.3 million total viewers across the Discovery Channel, Discovery+, and Max on night one. The network was #1 in primetime for all of TV with Adults and Men 18-49, because watching shark documentaries is to men what a trip to the therapist is for women.
Howard Lee, President of Discovery Networks and TLC, said this success was down to the new host and the Warner Bros. Discovery cross-promotion. Typically sensationalist content abounds, with titles such as Belly of the Beast: Feeding Frenzy and Serial Killer: Red Sea Attacks being served up for our viewing pleasure. There was no repeat of last year’s incident when a diver narrowly escaped after a very large Great White rammed the glass box he was testing out, breaking it and turfing him into the open water.
Check back every day for movie news and reviews at the Last Movie Outpost
