Latest news with #TomBergeron
Washington Post
2 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Washington Post
Discovery 'Shark Week' has breaching great whites, looks back at 'Jaws' and starts with some dancing
NEW YORK — Fifty years ago, 'Jaws' unlocked dread in millions about man-eating sharks. This summer, that fear may be somewhat reduced as they become contestants on a TV dance show. Former 'Dancing With the Stars' host Tom Bergeron steps up for a marketing masterstroke by Discovery Channel's 'Shark Week' — 'Dancing with Sharks,' where humans and 20-foot-long hammerhead sharks do a little mambo.
New York Post
15 hours ago
- Entertainment
- New York Post
Tom Bergeron on a possible ‘DWTS' return ahead of new shark show
Under the sea. Former 'Dancing With the Stars' host Tom Bergeron, 70, hosts a Shark Week special called 'Dancing With Sharks.' 'I had two reactions,' Bergeron, 70, exclusively told The Post. Advertisement 6 Tom Bergeron on 'Dancing With Sharks.' tombergeron/Instagram 'The first one was, 'What are you smoking?' And the second one was 'Where do I sign?' It was just too much fun an idea to pass up. Plus, as an added incentive, they gave me a little trip to the Bahamas.' He quipped, 'Some of these sharks danced better than some of the humans in the 15 years that I watched couples [on 'Dancing With the Stars']. Sharks don't have stage fright.' Advertisement Airing Sunday, July 20 (8 p.m. ET on Discovery), 'Dancing With Sharks' follows five shark experts as they dance underwater, surrounded by sharks, as Bergeron and a panel of judges (including Allison Holker and comedian Pete Holmes) offer commentary. The Emmy-winning TV host, who also helmed 'Hollywood Squares' from 1998 to 2004 and 'America's Funniest Home Videos' from 2001 to 2015, hosted 'Dancing With the Stars' from 2005 until he was fired from the ABC show in 2020. He was later replaced by Tyra Banks, who hosted just three seasons before her exit. 6 Contestant Jamie Ferguson interacting with a shark in a scene from 'Dancing with Sharks.' AP Advertisement 'I miss the people,' Bergeron said, but he explained that his contract would have taken him to Season 30, 'at which point, I was going to leave on my own timing. So, I only missed two seasons by being fired.' He added, 'Those two seasons, which would have been my final two, all occurred during the pandemic. And I would have hated that, because everything that I loved about the show — the camaraderie, throwing a party for everybody mid-season, hanging out together. You couldn't do any of that.' Looking back on his firing, Bergeron said, 'In hindsight, they kind of did me a favor.' 6 Tom Bergeron on 'Dancing With Sharks.' tombergeron/Instagram Advertisement 6 Tom Bergeron, Tonya Harding, and Sasha Farber on 'Dancing with Sharks.' ABC He added, 'I was able to go out doing the show the way I always did the show. And on that last show. Len [Goodman] and Bruno [Tonioli], Carrie Ann [Inaba] and I had a great time. I have great memories of wrapping it up that way.' Bergeron recalled that he recently had lunch with original 'Dancing with the Stars' showrunner Conrad Green, who is back in that role and is 'the reason the show has righted itself.' On whether he'd ever return, he told The Post: 'At lunch with Conrad, I offered a way that I'd feel comfortable going back for one night. I said, 'I'm not even going to charge you a lot of money. You pay me scale, and then you make a generous contribution to the Motion Picture and Television Fund, and I'll be there.'' 6 Janelle Van Ruiten interacting with a shark in a scene from 'Dancing with Sharks.' AP 6 Tom Bergeron on a 2018 episode of 'Dancing With the Stars.' ABC 'So we'll see. The mirrorball is in their court,' he continued. For now, Bergeron has a newfound interest in sharks. Advertisement 'Don't tell my wife, but now I'm intrigued about at least getting in one of the cages and going underwater and getting up close [with sharks],' he teased. 'The people I've met doing this show have really allayed some of my concerns about doing something like that.' However, he joked, 'It might result in a divorce.'
UPI
19 hours ago
- Entertainment
- UPI
'Shark Week:' How to watch, what to expect
Paul De Gelder stars in 'How to Survive a Shark Attack,' premiering Tuesday. Photo courtesy of Discovery NEW YORK, July 18 (UPI) -- Shark Week -- the annual summertime celebration of the toothy sea creatures -- kicks off Sunday on Discovery and Discovery+. The programming block contains nearly two dozen new documentaries. Highlights include: Sunday, July 20 Dancing with Sharks -- 8 p.m. EDT/PDT Hosted by Tom Bergeron and Kinga Philipps, this competition show challenges five divers to create movement routines with hammerheads, tigers and nurse sharks. "It's some of the world's best shark handlers, essentially dancing with sharks. This is going to be such a cool show because I think people don't really know to expect, so they're going to have to watch," Philipps told UPI in a recent Zoom interview. "Shark Week is a phenomenon. It's been going on for 37 years and it's this wonderful hodgepodge of entertainment and information." Air Jaws: The Hunt for Colossus -- 9PM EDT/PDT A crew looks for Colossus, a great white shark that went missing 10 years ago from South Africa's waters. Great White Assassins -- 10 p.m. EDT/PDT Alison Towner teams up with Dickie Chivell to decode how killer whales take down great whites in New Zealand. Monday, July 21 Great White Sex Battle -- 8 p.m. EDT/PDT Male and female great white sharks compete in a series of challenges to determine which sex is the superior predator. Jaws vs Mega Croc -- 9 p.m. EDT/PDT Tristan Guttridge, Rosie Moore and Dr. Sora Kim construct a CGI fight to the death between the great white shark and Nile crocodile. In the Eye of the Storm: Shark Storm -- 10 p.m. EDT/PDT A rare outbreak of shark attacks along America's gulf coast were captured on video in the summer of 2024. Tuesday, July 22 How to Survive a Shark Attack -- 9 p.m. EDT/PDT Shark attack survivor Paul de Gelder provokes sharks to charge him in various scenarios in an effort to teach viewers life-saving tactics. "My mom is going to kill me," laughed de Gelder, who lost his right hand and leg in a 2009 shark attack. "A lot of people are going to be sitting on the edges of their seats with a lot of anxiety," he added. "We try and teach people what to do if they get bitten or someone they're with gets bitten, what are the emergency procedures you need to take and, obviously, being Shark Week, I'm going to get attacked by the shark to make it as real as possible, so that's pretty wild." De Gelder said he hopes Shark Week viewers are inspired to explore the oceans themselves and that they develop respect for the creatures who inhabit them. "I grew up watching it and now I get to walk in the footsteps of my heroes and I don't think many people really get to do that in life and so I'm so blessed." Black Mako of the Abyss -- 10 p.m. EDT/PDT Shark Tagger Keith Poe, and experts Paul De Gelder and Kendyl Berna want to learn more about an aggressive, 13-feet long creature that could be a mako, a mutant or a mako/great white hybrid. "We came out to investigate why this shark looked so different than any other shark that any of us have seen out there and we came away with a few different theories," Berna said. "We don't fully have the entire answer yet, but it's still a really fun episode that investigates it and moves the needle forward on even just the existence of a shark that looks like this," she added. "There is so much left to be studied in the ocean. There is so much opportunity to learn there and sharks are all so different from each other. Some lay eggs. Some are live bearing. They've been around for 400 million years." Wednesday, July 23 Josh Gates solves strange and disturbing shark mysteries. Josh Gates, Phil Torres and Heather Amaro track a 20-foot-long predator in the waters of Malpelo Island, 300 miles off Colombia's coast. Forrest Galante injects himself with shark venom underwater to test the potency of the poisonous Port Jackson Shark and Ghost Shark. Thursday, July 24 Tom "Blowfish" Hird and Michelle Jewell separate fact from fiction in the 1975 movie, Jaws. Kinga Philipps hosts a clip show with hilarious and terrifying shark encounters captured on camera. "We're actually breaking down what happened in a situation -- the shark behavior, the human behavior, what went wrong, what maybe should have gone differently," Philipps said. Tristan Guttridge and his team use CGI to create the ultimate apex predator from a variety of shark species. Friday, July 25 Ryan Johnson, Gibbs Kuguru and Andy Casagrande want to know why two people were recently killed by sharks in the relatively safe waters off the coast of South Africa. Forrest Galante and his team explore why Florida -- specifically New Smyrna Beach -- has earned the title of "The Shark Attack Capital of the World." Paul de Gelder and Dr. Craig O'Connell try to determine which are meaner -- Australian or American bull sharks. Saturday, July 26 Kinga Phillips investigates why a rogue Tiger Shark attacked and killed a person in St. Martin. Giant Trevally battle sharks for domain of a hidden underwater peak off Mozambique's coast.
Forbes
20 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Forbes
When Does Shark Week 2025 Start? Here's The Full Week-Long Schedule
ENSENADA, MEXICO - SEPTEMBER 15: Great White Sharks seasonally gather off the coast of Guadalupe ... More Island; divers dive inside cages off the boat Nautilus Explorer in order to safely swim with the sharks on September 15, 2016, 150 miles off the coast of Mexico. (Photo by Dave J Hogan/Dave) Shark Week 2025 is just around the corner. Discovery Channel's annual celebration of the ocean's apex predator returns for its 37th year this weekend. Read on to find out exactly when Shark Week begins, the full release schedule and more details about the jaw-dropping event. Shark Week brought in an impressive 25 million viewers last year, according to Warner Bros. Discovery, and the thrilling footage and groundbreaking scientific discoveries are back for 2025. The week-long event will feature 20 hours of new specials, including Dancing with Sharks to kick off the week. Hosted by Emmy-winning TV personality Tom Bergeron, the special features 'an unprecedented underwater dance competition between expert divers and their shark partners,' Discovery teased. This summer also marks the 50th anniversary of Jaws, and Shark Week is honoring the milestone with special programming inspired by the blockbuster film. Surviving Jaws features marine biologist Tom 'The Blowfish' Hird and predator ecologist Michelle Jewell as they dive with great whites to answer one burning question: Does skinny-dipping really attract great white sharks? Fans can also look forward to the return of Air Jaws, where two teams travel the globe in search of the biggest breaching sharks in the world. Another special, In the Eye of the Storm, follows victims and first responders in real time as they encounter a cluster of shark attacks along Florida's Gulf Coast. Keep reading for the full Shark Week 2025 programming slate. When Does Shark Week 2025 Start? Great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias), underwater with caged divers. Dangerous Reef, South ... More Australia. (Photo by Auscape/Universal Images Group via Getty Images) Discovery Channel's 'Shark Week' officially runs from Sunday, July 20, through Saturday, July 26. Programming will begin at 8 p.m. ET each night. What's The Shark Week 2025 Release Schedule? Shark Week 2025 Schedule Check out some of the closest calls on Shark Week below.
San Francisco Chronicle
a day ago
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
Discovery 'Shark Week' has breaching great whites, looks back at 'Jaws' and starts with some dancing
NEW YORK (AP) — Fifty years ago, 'Jaws' unlocked dread in millions about man-eating sharks. This summer, that fear may be somewhat reduced as they become contestants on a TV dance show. Former 'Dancing With the Stars' host Tom Bergeron steps up for a marketing masterstroke by Discovery Channel's 'Shark Week' — 'Dancing with Sharks,' where humans and 20-foot-long hammerhead sharks do a little mambo. 'I had a decade and a half experience of hosting a dance show, but this one was different,' Bergeron tells The Associated Press. 'I'd often thought on 'Dancing With the Stars,' wouldn't it be great if we could incorporate another species? And here I've finally got my dream come true.' In the show, five scuba-diving shark handlers use bait to twirl and guide various sharks into mini-waltzes, in what's being billed as 'the world's most dangerous dance competition.' One contestant wraps his arms around a nerf shark and spoons it. Another takes off her air tank and does a double backflip. A third — a hip-hop loving shark handler — does an old school head spin on the ocean floor as sharks swirl. 'These are some of the best shark handlers in the world. These are people who know the nuances of sharks, know how they move, know how to behave, know how to safely move with them, and they're guiding these sharks along as you would a partner,' says Kinga Philipps, a TV correspondent and one of the three judges. 'It is so fluid and beautiful, all they really had to do is put a little bit of music to it and they're actually dancing.' It's a shark-a-thon 'Dancing with Sharks' kicks off the week of programing, which includes shows on how to survive a shark attack, why New Smyrna Beach in Florida has earned the title of 'The Shark Attack Capital of the World' and whether a mysterious dark-skinned shark off the coast of California is a mako, mutant or possibly a mako-and-great white hybrid. The seven nights of new shows — and a related podcast — ends off the Mozambique coast with a once-a-year feeding frenzy that turns into a showdown between the sharks and their massive prey, the giant trevally. One highlight is Paul de Gelder's 'How to Survive a Shark Attack,' which he has intimate knowledge about. He lost his right hand and leg in 2009 during an attack by a bull shark in Sydney Harbor. 'If you're in the jaws of a shark, you want to fight for all of your life. You want to go for the soft parts. You want go for the eyeball. You want to go for the gills,' he says. 'But if you're not being attacked by a shark and you're just encountering a shark, then you just want to remain calm.' De Gelder debunks one myth: Punching a charging shark will stop its attack. 'If you really want to hurt your own hand, go ahead,' he says. A better approach is to not thrash about and gently redirect the animal. 'The secret I got taught many years ago was don't act like food and they won't treat you like food.' 'Shark Week' has become a key part of the summer holiday TV schedule, a place where humans safe on land can see ancient apex predators unnervingly glide into view and snap open their jaws. This year's highlights also include the hunt for a 20-foot great white that can leap into the air — 'Air Jaws: The Hunt for Colossus' — and a show about male and female great whites competing in a series of challenges to determine which sex is the superior predator, naturally called 'Great White Sex Battle.' Joseph Schneier, senior vice president of production and development at Discovery, says the shows are born from listening to what the diving and science community is seeing, like pro divers moving artistically with the sharks as they fed them, leading to 'Dancing With Sharks.' 'We realized, well, there's something here that we can go further with,' he says. 'We're lucky that sharks continue to surprise us. Which helps us get kind of new stories and new things to focus on. That's been the mantra for us — the sharks are the stars, not the humans.' As always, there is a deep respect for the creatures and strong science beneath the amusing titles, sharky puns, dramatic music and racy titles like 'Frankenshark' and 'Alien Sharks: Death Down Under.' 'It's like putting your vegetables in a dessert,' says Bergeron. 'You get all the allure of a 'Dancing With Sharks' or other specific shows, but in the midst of that you do learn a lot about sharks and ecology and the importance of sharks in the ecosystem. It's all in your strawberry sundae.' Discovery's 'Shark Week' has a rival — National Geographic's 'SharkFest,' which also has hours of sharky content. There's also the unconnected shark horror comedy 'Hot Spring Shark Attack' and a movie earlier this summer that added a serial killer to a shark movie — 'Dangerous Animals.' Born from 'Jaws' 'Shark Week' was born as a counterpoint for those who developed a fear of sharks after seeing 'Jaws.' It has emerged as a destination for scientists eager to protect an animal older than trees. ''Jaws' helped introduce this country and this world to a predator we're all fascinated with,' says Schneier. 'But we also feel 'Jaws' went too far. These are not creatures that are out to hurt humans by any means, but they have had 50-plus million years of evolution to get to this place where they are just excellent predators. It's fun to celebrate just how good they are at their job.' Kendyl Berna, who co-founded the ecology group Beyond the Reef, and is a veteran on 'Shark Week,' says studying the ancient beasts can teach humans about changes to the planet. 'So much of the programming this year speaks to what's happening with the rest of the world — climate change and how much that affects where sharks are and when they're there and what they're eating,' she says. 'As a keystone apex predator, sharks do set the tone for what's happening.' Bergeron says being a part of 'Shark Week' for the first time and meeting some of the divers who interact with sharks has actually made him braver. 'I don't think I'm at a point where I could go down there with them and have the sharks swirling around me without a cage. But with a cage, I think I am ready to do that,' he says. 'Just don't tell my wife.'
