Shark Week is back and fans can bite into a new lineup of shows featuring some of the fiercest ocean predators.
“We’re really excited about this year because this year we brought the bar even higher,” Joe Romeiro, a shark expert and underwater cinematographer, told Cheddar. “There is going to be some really exciting content.”
Advanced technology will give audiences an unprecedented viewing experience, which will feature shots from fin cameras and hidden underwater lenses, said Romeiro, who has filmed for Shark Week for nearly a decade. “The camera technology gets better and better every year.”
“People will see something there that they have never seen before,” said Romeiro.
Programming will include shows on great white sharks' feeding zones in Baja, California, a search for the supposedly extinct Pondicherry shark, and a feature on the predatory skills of Mako sharks, among several others.
During Shark Week this year, Discovery ($DISCA) and several other brands are partnering with Oceana — an ocean conservationist organization founded in 1999 — to combat the global trade of shark fins.
Amazon ($AMZN), for instance, will donate $1 for every hour of Shark Week streamed on the company’s Fire devices to the Discovery Oceana Shark Fund. Great Clips too will donate $1 for every download of its app.
Discovery and Vans also teamed up to introduce a new shoe line in honor of Shark Week, from which a portion of the proceeds will be donated to the nonprofit.
Now in its 31st year, the annual week of shark-centric programming kicked off on Discovery Channel on Sunday and will air through August 4. Last year, nearly 35 million people tuned in to watch Shark Week.
Shark Week "returns with bigger sharks and even bigger bites," Discovery said in a blog post, adding that the network "will leave no shark fan behind, bringing the Shark Week experience to viewers across digital and social media platforms."
A new mobile app has launched just in time for Valentine's Day. Our.Love bills itself as an A.I.-powered, gamified, relationship wellness app for couples. The app is set in what the company calls the Coupleverse, a virtual world where each couple can build a virtual relationship home as they also build their real-world relationship. Founder and CEO Tal Zlotnitsky joined Cheddar to discuss how the app works. "The concept behind Our.Love is to give people the opportunity to understand where they stand in their relationship through very simple metrics that we provide within the app that will help them in real-time, see where they stand, see where their partner is, and be able to get closer together," he said.
The Super Bowl is just 48 hours away and things are definitely heating up in the social media space, especially on Twitter. Fans across the country are quickly engaging in color commentary as they call it, and actively sharing their views on who's expected to take the big win, which players they are looking forward to seeing. Senior Sports Partner Manager at Twitter, David Herman, joined Cheddar to discuss more.
Director and producer Ivan Reitman passed away over the weekend at the age of 75. The filmmaker was the mastermind behind some of America's favorite films such as "Ghostbusters". Reitman’s family released a statement explaining how they are comforted by the lives he has touched through his films.
The 21st Annual Food Network and Cooking Channel South Beach Wine & Food Festival (SOBEWFF), is returning to Miami on February 24 with proceeds to benefit the future leaders of the hospitality industry. Lee Schrager, the founder and director of the festival, and Food Network star Jeff Mauro joined Cheddar News to discuss what ticket holders can expect, how the festival benefits students, and how Mauro will be paying tribute to fellow food celebrity, Guy Fieri, by hosting a charity auction dinner. "I mean there's nobody bigger, nobody more magnetic right now in the food space than Guy," Maura said. "I mean the guy had a Super Bowl commercial on last night. That's a dream of mine, so I'm one step closer there just by doing a tight 20 minutes at his tribute dinner."
