Summer is in full swing, and what better way to celebrate than with National Geographic’s biggest “SharkFest” yet? Kicking off on July 5, this year’s event includes six weeks of programming across Nat Geo, Nat Geo Wild, Nat Geo Mundo, Disney XD and Disney+. “It’s really embracing our family members, which was an amazing opportunity that we didn’t have in the years before,” National Geographic svp, program development and production Janet Han Vissering told CFX. “We are embracing all the beauty and the extra pluses that they can share with us. And for us, as a producing unit, we need to make sure that our shows are better, have diverse abilities to speak to the Disney XD viewers, to Disney+, to Nat Geo, to Nat Geo Wild—it’s got to be multifaceted so that we can play for all these platforms.” This year’s Sharkfest contributors are just as diverse as the platforms that the content is landing on. There’s plenty of star power thanks to names like Chris Hemsworth, but there are also more females than ever before that are being featured as shark science contributors. That’s something Nat Geo is looking to continue in the future, and it has signed on to a new partnership with Minorities in Shark Science to continue pushing diversity and inclusion efforts in the field. It’s Hemsworth’s show that will kick off this year’s festivities. Airing July 5 at 9pm and streaming on Disney+ on July 9, “Shark Beach with Chris Hemsworth” dives into behaviors of sharks on Australia’s eastern coastline after an increase in attacks. The collaboration partially came to be because the actor was stuck in lockdown in Sydney. “He’s in the shark capital of the world,” she said. “It is a slightly torn relationship that he has with that because he is a steward. He’s an ambassador to the shores of Australia, and yet there are these apex predators out there that are also in peril. So it’s like what side do you want to take?”
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