July 13 marked the end of another “Shark Week,” a shark-centered television event that’s aired annually since 1988.
And as soon as the week came to an end, the executives at Warner Bros. Discovery began searching for a new host for 2025 — one that could make network history.
In an interview with Variety, U.S. networks chief marketing officer Karen Bronzo said that she “absolutely foresees female hosts in the future.”
In the history of the show, a woman has never hosted the program.
When “Shark Week” first aired, it was originally run without a host altogether — sans a surprise appearance from “Jaws” screenwriter Peter Benchley in 1994.
But in 2000, “Shark Week” adopted a host format under the tutelage of British naturalist Nigel Marven.
In the 24 years since, hosts have run the gamut of scientists, athletes, actors, and even “Mythbusters” stars.
The most memorable “Shark Week” hosts include Shaquille O'Neal, Dwayne Johnson, Les Stroud, Craig Ferguson, Andy Samberg, Jason Momoa — and most recently — John Cena.
That is not to say that women haven’t been featured on “Shark Week” in the past, and their work should definitely be celebrated.
Mainstays like marine biologists Dr. Alison Kock, Ornella Weideli, researcher Lindsay Graff, and diver Cristina Zenato have been pivotal to program favorites like “Shark Storm,” “Sharktacular,” and many more — but the majority of the shows primarily focus on male experts, researchers, and divers.
This is at odds with the reality of ocean experts at work today. According to self-reported statistics from Career Explorer, 69% of marine biologists in the field today are women.
This metric wouldn’t surprise the women at BYU-Hawaii, who vastly outnumbered their male classmates in the university’s marine biology program in 2022.
“I feel like naturally, we have a very nurturing side to us as women, and I think we have a love and care for the planet and animals,” BYUH senior Luckaia Strand told Kealakai.
But outside of the classroom, the students met real-world gender gaps. When BYUH student J Ungos interned at the Brevard Zoo in Melbourne, FL, she clocked that all of the curators and directors were men, even though women made up half of all zookeepers.
“It felt very male-dominated,” she said.
When it comes to career gaps in marine biology, nonprofit Women In Ocean Science is hoping to tackle “gendered issues in marine science” and empower women across a variety of ocean-related fields.
“Supporting women is protecting the ocean,” reads the mission statement on their website. “We’re creating an international movement to elevate the female voices working to protect our marine environment.”
As “Shark Week” starts pre-production and planning for summer 2025 — so quickly after this year’s wrap — Bronzo said that she and other executives aren’t afraid to make waves.
“One of the things we’ve always been very conscious of, especially in bringing on the other experts that we have with the host,” Bronzo said, “is making sure that we have diversity, that we have women voices, that we have diverse voices.”
Header image via Terry Goss / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
