Discovery should be sending a huge “thank-you” basket to Syfy — or maybe send ’em Chevy Chase in his old “Land Shark” guise from “Saturday Night Live.”
“Megalodon,” the first episode of Discovery’s “Shark Week” programming slate, snared nearly 5 million viewers Sunday night — the most-watched and highest-rated “Shark Week” episode ever.
While “Shark Week” has been a steady ratings winner for Discovery over the years, it’s not hard to fathom that the runaway social media success of Syfy’s cheesy movie “Sharknado” — which aired last month and several times since — had a lot to do with driving viewers to “Megalodon” Sunday night.
“Megalodon,” in turn, drove viewership for a new “Shark Week” entry — “Shark After Dark,” a talk show hosted by comedian Josh Wolf which drew over 2 million viewers with guests Dominic Monaghan at 11 p.m.
“Sharknado” stars Ian Zieiring and Tara Reid, in fact, are slated to appear tonight on “Shark After Dark.”
Other “Shark After Dark” guests this week include surfer Laird Hamilton, Alison Sweeney, David Hasselhoff, Tom Green and Justin Gabriel.