‘Totally bonkers’: Celebrities plus sharks equals scarily compelling viewing
Source: Channel 9
“It’s not normal to feel that scared,” says champion swimmer Ariarne Titmus as she emerges shaking and crying from the water.
Ah, actually, fear seems a perfectly reasonable response to a close encounter with a shiver of very large, very interested bull sharks – even if you are behind the bars of a cage.
The recently retired four-time Olympic gold-medallist, whose confidence in the pool doesn’t extend to the ocean, is not the only fearful celebrity participant in Channel Nine’s weirdly compelling new reality show, Shark!.
Underbelly star Matt Nable quietly white-knuckles it through the first two episodes, while Gold Coast influencer Tammy Hembrow, The Block host Scott Cam and Home and Away veteran Lynne McGranger all cope with either shaky bravado or bare-faced terror.
Former rugby league star Sam Thaiday, however, is the voice of calm – perhaps partly because he comes from the Torres Strait Islands and the hammerhead shark is his family’s totem.
“As long as they shut their mouths, I’m happy to jump in the water with the sharks,” Thaiday says in an early episode of Shark!.
“No smiling at me, sharks, please.”
Nine has described the series, which premiered just over a week ago, as “high octane”, while McGranger – who is at the centre of a diving emergency in episode two – declared on social media that it was “totally bonkers”. Both are correct.
The concept revolves around the six high-profile participants facing their fears in the shark-infested waters of a place called Bimini in the Bahamas. Along the way, it’s hoped they – and viewers – will gain a newfound respect and understanding of these much-feared predators and their important role in the marine ecosystem.
It is an unfortunate coincidence that Shark!, which is adapted from a UK series, hit Australian screens at a time when there have been several fatal shark attacks. In fact, Nine made a last-minute decision to postpone its premiere in Western Australia after the death of a fisherman off Rottnest Island last month.
Nonetheless, it’s captured people’s interest, reaching 1.68 million viewers across the country when it followed the news on May 31. That put it four spots ahead of Ten’s MasterChef in the national TV ratings, although the cooking show had a higher average audience throughout (655,000 compared with 628,000).
With six episodes in total, the fear factor is likely to keep ramping up as former navy clearance diver Paul de Gelder and shark researcher Annie Guttridge guide the celebs through a series of increasingly daunting challenges.
In the first two episodes, they quickly graduate from cage diving with bull sharks and hand-feeding stingrays in shallow water, to swimming among nurse sharks along what is ominously known as “predator corridor” – AKA the shark superhighway.
“I’m sure Channel Nine doesn’t want me to die,” quips Cam.
Although nurse sharks are supposed to be “calm and bottom dwelling”, Guttridge notes they can grow to three metres in length, weigh around 120 kilograms and have “incredible suction power”.
“About 10 times that of a household vacuum,” she helpfully explains to her nervous charges.
“They have been known to partially de-glove human hands.”
The fact that de Gelder himself lost a hand and leg to a three-metre bull shark during a navy training exercise in Sydney Harbour in 2009 is a constant reminder of the dangers that lurk beneath. It’s also cause for pause when he delivers advice such as this:
“Don’t act like food and they won’t treat you like food.”
Shark! may raise some ethical questions with its footage showing sharks and stingrays being baited or fed, and the show has clearly been edited for maximum drama, but it is fascinating to witness the close encounters with the ocean’s apex predators.
As for Titmus, she has admitted on social media that she is still “petrified” of sharks, but described the show as a life-changing experience.
“Putting myself out there to take part in this experience was vulnerable and completely out of my comfort zone,” she wrote.
“I’m proud of myself and so glad I said yes!! Sharks are apex predators, but so misunderstood. I can’t wait for you all to witness what a crazy journey it was.”
The journey will climax with the celebrities swimming with what Nine describes as “one of the ocean’s most formidable, feared and misunderstood apex predators”: The tiger shark.
Shark! airs on Nine on Sundays at 7pm and Mondays at 7.30pm, with the first episodes available to stream
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