Buoyed by new host Jason Momoa, Discovery Channel’s week-long “Shark Week” celebration has been something of a ratings smash for the cable channel and streamer.
Returning on July 23rd for its 35th year, the programming event had its highest-rated premiere night in three years and reached more than 5.3 million total viewers across Discovery Channel, discovery+, and Max on that first night.
The event drove the network to rank #1 in primetime for all of TV with Adults and Men 18-49, #1 across cable television with Adults and Men 25-54, Adults and Men 18-49, and Adults 18-34.
It also helped Discovery become the #1 network on cable in Adults, Men and Women 25-54, Adults, Men and Women 18-49 and Women 18-34 over the first four nights of the week.
Howard Lee, President of Discovery Networks and TLC, puts the success down to using the entire Warner Bros. Discovery portfolio to cross-promote the event. The addition of Momoa to engage viewers, and a themed cross-promotion of “Meg 2: The Trench” were also seen as big draws.
Last Sunday night’s line-up “Belly of the Beast: Feeding Frenzy,” “Jaws vs The Meg,” and “Serial Killer: Red Sea Attacks” all pulled in big numbers along with making headlines for one sequence in which a great white shark feast was captured by researchers using cameras inside a whale carcass decoy.
Source: Deadline
