Nobody likes a bait and switch, and nobody likes to be duped into wasting their time on something that they didn’t have any interest in. This happened in a highly anticipated Shark Week special that was billed as the race of the century between legendary gold medal winner Micheal Phelps and a great white shark.
Wow, what a race. If you think the Olympics were intense, just imagine all of that, plus the danger of being eaten! Except there was no danger because well, the Discovery Channel wasn’t insane enough to put Micheal Phelps in the water with the massive predator.
Via Washington Post:
. . .57 minutes into Discovery’s heavily promoted Sunday night Shark Week program — in which Olympic powerhouse swimmer Michael Phelps was set to race against a great white shark — viewers heard this quote from ecologist Tristan Gutteridge, one the featured scientists:
“Clearly, we can’t put Michael in one lane and a white shark on the far lane. We’re gonna have to do a simulation.”
Hold on. So Phelps wasn’t going to actually race a shark in a TV event titled “Phelps vs. Shark: Great Gold vs. Great White”?! Why was the hour-long special billed as such?
People were NOT happy. Apparently, they were under the impression that there was going to be the possibility of a blood bath, instead of some fancy animation. We knew that the fake news was getting worse, but we didn’t know it had invaded Shark Week. Is nothing sacred?
As we tend to do when we’re disturbed about something, the angry shark aficionados vented their feelings in some pretty frustrated tweets:
https://twitter.com/theSwoleCole/status/889332518239055873
https://twitter.com/reqnna/status/889315167690936320
https://twitter.com/HannahGBowen/status/889292068127899650
As you can see, people feel like this should have been divulged at the beginning of the show.
Michael Phelps race against a computer generated shark will go down as one of TV's most hyped flops. #gullibleTVviewers
— PhantomAcct (@phantomacct) July 24, 2017
For the record, this is how we all felt when they supposedly had President Trump’s tax returns.
https://twitter.com/spoyourboat/status/889289665840283651
https://twitter.com/MegDownSouth/status/889278691364175876
Waited an hour for Michael Phelps to race a CGI shark.
Discovery is receiving a strongly worded letter fur sure.
— Jerod Breth (@PhreshBreth) July 24, 2017
No, not a strongly worded letter, anything but that!
(WP) The computer simulated great white shark swam 100 meters in 36.1 seconds. Phelps, fitted in a special wet suit and monofin that bound his feet together, took 38.1 seconds to swim the same distance. So close — but no dice.
The moment of glory for #TeamShark!!! #PhelpsVsShark #SharkWeek pic.twitter.com/NWYp1CwiRa
— Shark Week (@SharkWeek) July 24, 2017
If you’d wanted some dice, Discovery Channel, you should have shown the bloodthirsty people some fear in MP’s eyes while he raced for his life. I feel like he could have shaved those two seconds off if he’d had a little incentive.
I was so disappointed when I found out that Phelps didn't actually race against a great white 😂 #SharkWeek
— dani 🍃 (@dnirae) July 24, 2017
In case you didn’t see the special and didn’t know how to proceed, we close with these parting words:
IT WAS A FAKE SHARK. Phelps raced a fake shark….and lost.
I feel cheated #SharkWeek2017 pic.twitter.com/nEABV6PRNZ— Jessica Morrey (@JessicaMorrey) July 24, 2017
(Source: Washington Post)