What can u watch Shark Week on?

Shark Week 2022 is here, and if you want to catch up on all the amazing shows that Discovery is running then our Shark Week streaming guide is the place to be.

For the uninitiated, Shark Week is an annual event run by the Discovery channel (opens in new tab) which runs for an entire week and showcases loads of shark related content. Shark Week has been running for a whopping 34 years at this point, and it’s become something of a TV tradition.

Why has Shark Week become such a TV phenomenon, we hear you ask? Because sharks are awesome, that’s why. They’re some of the oldest animals still living today, having been around long before the dinosaurs first ruled the Earth, and they’re a diverse and fascinating group of animals. There are big sharks, small sharks, fast sharks, and plenty of really weird sharks out there too.

Shark Week 2022 has now officially started, with things kicking off on July 24th and running through until July 30th across both the Discovery channel and Discovery’s streaming service, Discovery+ (opens in new tab).

Despite being an entire week dedicated to sharks, Shark Week didn’t necessarily start off with their best interests in mind - the original Shark Week was heavily focused on panic and portraying sharks as merciless killers, but it’s come a long way since then. These days, Shark Week also looks to educate viewers, teaching them about sharks, dangers to their habitats, and dispelling many of the myths around them and their “manhunter” reputation.

With all that having been said, there are plenty of thrills to be seen during Shark Week too, with tons of footage of sharks hunting their natural, non-human prey. It’s always cool to watch sharks eat stuff, as long as it’s not an unfortunate Discovery presenter.

If you can’t wait to dive into Shark Week, then our Shark Week streaming guide has everything you need, including guides on how to sign up for Discovery+ and a full schedule so you can pick out the shows you want to watch.

When is Shark Week 2022?

• July 24 - July 30

This year’s celebration of highly toothy fish has already started, with shows running from July 24 - 30. This will be the 34th installment of the programming event, meaning you likely know people who’ve only ever known a world that had Shark Week in it. Not to be confused with NatGeo’s SharkFest (opens in new tab), Shark Week is the OG when it comes to pro-shark weeks of observance. 

This year’s master of ceremonies is Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, who despite being an absolute unit, could nonetheless not bench press a Great White: On a good day, The Rock can bench 450 lbs (204 kilograms) and a great white can weigh ten times that much. That’s the kind of stuff you learn on Shark Week, people! Are you not entertained?

How to watch Shark Week 2022

The best way to watch Shark Week is with friends, obviously, as you sing shark songs and eat a nice big slice of shark cake. More practically speaking, however, you can watch Shark Week live on the Discovery Channel if you have cable or satellite. If you’re more of a streamer, you’re going to need a subscription to Discovery+ (opens in new tab). The good news there is that as of right now, Discovery+ is offering the first two months of service for a buck (opens in new tab). 

Even better news (for Verizon customers, anyway) is that certain plans qualify for six free months of Discovery+ (opens in new tab). If you’re already a customer, or you’re thinking of switching to a different cell provider then you will be able to enjoy all of the Shark Week content at no additional cost. Neat. 

If you're stuck abroad during Shark Week and can't access Discovery+ in your current location, we have a solution for you there too — a VPN. VPNs allow you to access geo-restricted content by bouncing your connection to a server based in that country. This means that you can access all of your US-based streaming services no matter where you are in the world. There are loads of VPN services out there, but our favorite is ExpressVPN (opens in new tab).

Shark Week 2022 schedule

Below you can find the full Shark Week 2022 schedule, which shows you almost* every show running during Shark Week, and what date & time you can catch them live. You can also watch them on Discovery+ anytime after the air date.

A couple of the shows in the lineup are missing from this official schedule (for some reason, the three 7pm shows are missing). We've listed them below:

Return to Headstone Hell - Dr. Riley Elliott returns to Norfolk Island with underwater cinematographer Kina Scollay to see what happens when the island's tiger sharks go head-to-head with migrating great whites over an unusual food source: cow carcasses.
Watch Sunday, July 24 at 7:00pm ET/PT on Discovery and Discovery+

Stranger Sharks - Mark Rober and Noah Schnapp from Stranger Things are teaming up for the ultimate Shark Week adventure -- exploring abandoned undersea ruins and manmade artificial reefs searching for the strangest sharks in the ocean.
Watch Monday, July 25 at 7:00pm ET/PT on Discovery and Discovery+

Extinct or Alive Jaws of Alaska - International wildlife biologist Forrest Galante travels the world in search of rare and elusive wildlife, including those lost to science, and mysterious cold-water sharks.
Watch Tuesday, July 26 at 7:00pm ET/PT on Discovery and Discovery+

What is Shark Week?

Shark Week 2022 is 25 hours of original content about, you guessed it, sharks. Big sharks, little sharks, mating sharks, migrating sharks — but mostly it’s about sharks eating things. Let’s be honest, watching shark eat things is never not cool. They’re incredibly well-designed killing machines that make violence look graceful. They’re so well-designed, in fact, that they’ve changed very little since they first evolved. They’re were here before the dinosaurs and they’ve long outlasted them, and much of Shark Week is about watching them eat things and watching people be scared or fascinated by them eating things. 

Shark Week offers more than just shows, however. There’s a podcast to listen to (which wisely includes an episode on how to deter sharks), a sweepstakes to enter to win $20,000, photos to peruse, NFT drops, and news stories. 

Stumped about what to get your family for the holidays this year? We have three words for you: Shark Week merch. Lest you think this is all sensationalism that’s moved too far away from the true meaning of Shark Week, there’s also plenty of educational information, too. For example, the “hammer” of the distinctive hammerhead shark is more properly called a cephalofoil. Also, bonus, hammerheads aren’t typically aggressive towards humans, instead preferring to prey on stingrays.

Shark Week began as a marketing ploy to get people watching the Discovery Channel mid-summer, a somewhat tongue-in-cheek play on the fear of sharks at the beach. Since then, Shark Week has become a legitimate phenomenon that’s earned a place in cultural vernacular. From mentions on 30 Rock to t-shirts (opens in new tab) and references in movies, Shark Week has arguably done more to raise sharks’ profile than anything since "Jaws." 

More than 30 million viewers tune in each year and celebrities from Guy Fieri to Rob Gronkowski show up to feed, gawk, and generally marvel at sharks. It certainly doesn’t hurt that Shark Week programming features some of the most beautiful locations in the world, like Turks and Caicos, the Azores, the Bahamas, and South Africa. 

What shows are running during Shark Week?

There are some 25 hours of original programming making up this year’s Shark Week, which is a whole lot of sharking around. There are a few standouts that we think are particularly worthy of your attention, though:

Stranger Sharks

Have you ever wondered whether it’s scarier to come face to face with a demogorgon or a shark? If you have, first of all you are unquestionably very fun at parties, but secondly, you will likely want to check out "Stranger Sharks," which features "Stranger Things"’ Noah Schnapp and former NASA and Apple engineer Mark Rober. The duo will get wet exploring undersea ruins and human-made reefs on their hunt for the “strangest sharks in the ocean.”  

"Stranger Sharks" will air Monday, July 25 at 7:00 p.m. ET/PT on Discovery and Discovery+.

Shark Rober 

If that’s not enough Mark Rober for you, he’s back on "Shark Rober," in which he teams up with marine biologist Luke Tipple to test the theory that sharks can smell human blood from a mile away. They apparently get “surprising results” from three different species of shark. Would a former NASA engineer be brave (or dumb) enough to stick his own bleeding finger in the water in the hopes of attracting a shark? We can but hope.

"Shark Rober" will air Saturday, July 30 at 11:30 p.m. ET/PT on Discovery and Discovery+.

"Return to Headstone Hell" 

Fact: Watching sharks feed is cool. Fact: Watching them feed from a vantage point underwater is even better. Fact: Watching tiger sharks and great whites battle it out over cow carcasses off the coast of Norfolk Island is a guaranteed good time. 

"Return to Headstone Hell" will air Sunday, July 24 at 7:00 p.m. on Discovery and Discovery+.

"Island of the Walking Sharks"

After 30-odd years of Shark Week, surely everything shark or shark-adjacent has already been seen, no? No. Animal Planet’s Forrest Galante will highlight “new and mysterious species of sharks,” some of which were previously thought extinct. Some were just misidentified, which is fascinating when you think about it. How can you look at a shark and not immediately know it’s a shark? It’s easier than you might think to get it wrong, as it happens.

"Island of the Walking Sharks" will air Wednesday, July 27 at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT on Discovery and Discovery+.

"Jaws vs Kraken"

Is the name over the top? Yes. And yet it’s also fairly accurate. Great white sharks in the neighborhood of Guadalupe Island have been turning up with scars believed to be from giant squids. Sharks going head to head with squids? That’s the kind of fight we want to see. Behavioural ecologist and wildlife presenter Tristan Guttride is on a mission to get a ring-side seat to the action. 

"Jaws vs Kraken" will air Tuesday, July 26 at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT on Discovery and Discovery+.

"Impractical Jokers Shark Week Spectacular"

And so we come to the “Hold my beer” portion of Shark Week. The Impractical Jokers  — a bunch of fellas who pull pranks on each other — “set out to dispel the myth that sharks are man-eating beasts the only way they know how - with extreme, mortifying dares!” What could possibly go wrong?

"Impractical Jokers Shark Week Spectacular" will air Tuesday, July 26 at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT on Discovery and Discovery+, and on Thursday, July 28 at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT on truTV.

Susan Arendt is a freelance writer, editor, and consultant living in Burleson, TX. She specializes in entertainment and tech coverage. You can find more of her work at Wired, IGN, Polygon, or look for her on Twitter: @SusanArendt. Be prepared to see too many pictures of her dogs.