Discovery Channel’s beloved annual Shark Week is known for celebrating the real, extraordinary facts about sharks. But the network decided to kick off the 2013 edition Sunday night with Megalodon, a documentary about a legendary shark. The only problem is that the Megalodon never existed and the Internet is mad about it.
Nearly every post on the network’s Facebook page has been bombarded with comments slamming the network’s decision to start the event off with a fake documentary.
“Next on discovery do sharknados exist. We won't be sure until the last min of this 2 hour documentary,” one person wrote today. Another person wrote, “Why does the description on this page say you are dedicated to producing high quality NON-FICTION shows when you kicked off shark week with a 100% fictional story???? please explain. shark week just died a little for me.”
Others have said that they now won’t believe anything Discovery airs.
According to SFGate.com, Megalodon: The Monster Shark Lives was a two-hour documentary that lead viewers to beleive that there really was a 67-foot ancient shark found near South Africa. It even suggested that it still exists and was seen eating a boat near Cape Town just months ago.
In the final two minutes, Discovery showed a disclaimer that it was all fake. People promptly took to social media to slam the network for airing the ‘documentary.’
“With a whole week of Shark Week programming ahead of us, we wanted to explore the possibilities of Megalodon,” Shark Week executive producer Michael Sorensen told Fox News. “It’s one of the most debated shark discussions of all time, can Megalodon exist today? It’s Ultimate Shark Week fantasy. The stories have been out there for years and with 95% of the ocean unexplored, who really knows?”
Megalodon is airing again Sunday at 10 a.m.
image: YouTube