Tons of Shark Week shows are full of obvious pseudoscientific nonsense, and yet feature real scientists. Why would these people agree to do that? In my capacity as “Shark Week’s Biggeset Critic,” I’m asked this question a lot, and while I can’t speak for others and their decision-making processes, based on what colleagues have told me, here are some possible reasons why someone might agree to do this. These are in no particular order of likelihood or importance.
(By request, I’ve turned this, which was a social media post, into a more permanent and more easily shareable blog post).
1) They’re gonna do the nonsense anyway, if I’m there there will be at least a few moments of real science in the show. Let’s make the best of a goofy weird situation, and try to make a bad show slightly better. And maybe by doing so, I can get into the Shark Week family to hopefully do something good later.
2) Shark Week pays for stuff. A few days of boat time is a few days of boat time, even if some of that time is used to film goofy nonsense some of it can be used to do real science (even if that real science does not appear on the show).
3) Shark Week elevates a scientist’s profile (local news often reports on “local scientist featured on Shark Week, here’s a quick profile of them and their work”) and that has a variety of professional benefits including media attention to real work, and even donors/funding.
4) It reaches an audience you might not otherwise reach, even if the message that reaches them is about the nonsense featured on this show your name still reaches them, and that can be useful later. “As seen on Shark Week” is a sentence that (rightly or wrongly) opens some professional and fundraising doors.
5) Some people earnestly believe that their presence automatically makes a show not nonsense anymore. I’m a serious scientist, so now the show is a serious science show because I’m here, etc.
6) Some people don’t really know what Shark Week is and don’t know how nonsensical their show is gonna be. Every year someone is heartbroken when they watch what the production team turned their hard work into.
7) A lot of the nonsense is harmless and even fun, and, well, it’s fun to do fun stuff sometimes.
8 ) Some people were featured on Shark Week once, got a taste of “fame” and don’t want to let it go, and are willing to do things I would not personally be willing to do in order to get another taste of fame.
I am not endorsing any of these reasons, and regularly caution colleagues to not use some of this reasoning because again *EVERY YEAR SOMEONE IS HEARTBROKEN WHEN THEY WATCH WHAT THE PRODUCTION TEAM TURNED THEIR HARD WORK INTO*. But hopefully this gives you a bit of a window into why someone may make a choice that otherwise appears baffling.