What Time Does Shark Week 2025 Start? Here’s The Full Schedule

Shark Week 2025 is just around the corner. Discovery Channel’s annual celebration of the ocean’s apex predator returns for its 37th year tonight. 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.

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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 Time Does Shark Week 2025 Start?

Discovery Channel’s Shark Week kicks off on Sunday, July 20, at 8 p.m. on Discovery.

How Long Does Shark Week 2025 Last?

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?

Check out the full Shark Week 2025 release schedule below, along with descriptions of each special provided by Discovery.

Sunday, July 20

• 8 p.m. ET: Dancing With Sharks – Watch five divers compete to put together an amazing underwater routine with sharks, from hammerheads to tigers and nurse sharks.
• 9 p.m. ET: Air Jaws: The Hunt for Colossus – A 20-foot great white breaches in New Zealand, sparking a hunt for Colossus, the legendary flying shark who went missing 10 years ago from South Africa’s waters.
• 10 p.m. ET: Great White Assassins – Shark expert Alison Towner teams up with Shark Week legend Dickie Chivell to decode how killer whales take down great whites with ease.

Monday, July 21

• 8 p.m. ET: Great White Sex Battle – Male and female great white sharks compete in a series of challenges to determine which sex is the superior predator in the waters off the coast of New Zealand.
• 9 p.m. ET: Jaws vs. Mega Croc – Using data gathered in new experiments, Tristan Guttridge, Rosie Moore and Dr. Sora Kim construct a CGI fight to the death between the Great White Shark and Nile Crocodile.
• 10 p.m. ET: In the Eye of the Storm: Shark Storm – In the summer of 2024, dozens of cameras capture a rare outbreak of shark attacks along America’s gulf coast. The special is told exclusively through first-hand accounts of victims and eyewitnesses.

Tuesday, July 22

• 8 p.m. ET: Great White North Invasion – Off the shores of Nova Scotia, Canada, a team of scientists tracks down and tags the biggest sharks to uncover the sharkiest locations before there’s a fatal attack.
• 9 p.m. ET: How To Survive A Shark Attack – Shark attack survivor Paul de Gelder attempts the unthinkable – getting attacked by a shark, again. Under the supervision of experts, Paul provokes sharks to attack him in multiple scenarios.
• 10 p.m. ET: Black Mako of the Abyss – When Shark Tagger Keith Poe saw the shark for the first time, he knew it was different. It was aggressive, 13-feet long and had very dark skin. Now, a group of experts lure the beast up from the abyss to determine if the creature is a mako, or mutant, or possibly, a mako and great white hybrid.

Wednesday, July 23

• 8 p.m. ET: Expedition Unknown: Shark Files – Global adventurer Josh Gates solves some of the strangest and most disturbing shark mysteries of all-time, including the real-life bloody inspiration for the movie Jaws.
• 9 p.m. ET: Expedition X: Malpelo Monster Shark – Josh Gates sends Phil Torres and Heather Amaro on their most perilous mission yet – tracking a legendary monster shark that lurks in the eerie waters of Malpelo Island, 300 miles off Colombia’s coast.
• 10 p.m. ET: Alien Sharks: Death Down Under – Wildlife biologist Forrest Galante injects himself with shark venom after diving down under into Australia’s dangerous waters, home to some of the weirdest, alien-like and deadly sharks.

Thursday, July 24

• 8 p.m. ET: Surviving Jaws – Fifty years after Jaws, marine biologist Tom “Blowfish” Hird and predator ecologist Michelle Jewell re-examine the movie and dive with Great Whites.
• 9 p.m. ET: Caught! Sharks Strike Back – This year has set a record for shark encounters captured on camera, from a hilarious moment when a shark slaps a fisherman in the face to the intense 10-minutes a great white stalked a kayaker.

10 p.m. ET: Frankenshark – Shark expert Tristan Guttridge and his team use CGI to create the ultimate apex predator. They build the deadliest, weirdest shark on the planet and put it to the test in a high-stakes showdown against a killer orca.

Friday, July 25

• 8 p.m. ET: Great White Reign of Terror – In South Africa, two people are killed by great whites near the eastern cape, an area that hasn’t seen an attack in decades. Ryan Johnson, Gibbs Kuguru and Andy Casagrande head out to investigate the cause behind the spike in attacks before there’s another fatality.
• 9 p.m. ET: Florida’s Death Beach – One again, Florida’s New Smyrna Beach has earned the title of “The Shark Attack Capital of the World,” accounting for 30% of global shark attacks. Forrest Galante and his team investigate before even more blood ends up in the water.
• 10 p.m. ET: Bull Shark Showdown – The most vicious and insane populations of bull sharks from Australia and America faceoff in a no-holds-barred showdown beneath the water.

Saturday, July 26

• 8 p.m. ET: Attack of the Devil Shark – A rogue Tiger Shark attacks and kills a person in St. Martin. Weeks later, it strikes again. Locals fear it could be the work of the legendary Devil Shark, a massive and ruthless tiger shark who’s haunted their shores for decades. When a team sets out to track down the shark responsible for the attacks, they uncover a seismic force that may be triggering aggression in sharks.
• 9 p.m. ET: Battle for Shark Mountain – Off Mozambique’s coast, sharks swarm a hidden peak, hunting Giant Trevally in a once-a-year feeding frenzy. But when 5,000 Trevally fight back, the hunters become the hunted in one of the ocean’s wildest showdowns.

How To Watch Shark Week 2025

Shark Week 2025 airs on the Discovery Channel and streams on Discovery+ and HBO Max.

A Discovery+ subscription costs $5.99 per month for the ad-supported plan and $9.99 per month for the ad-free plan. Meanwhile, HBO Max offers three subscription tiers: Basic with Ads for $9.99/month, Standard for $16.99/month, and Premium for $20.99/month.

Cord-cutters can also stream Shark Week programming on live TV streaming services that carry Discovery, including DirecTV Stream, Philo, Hulu+ Live TV and YouTube TV. All four platforms currently offer free trials, allowing you to catch part of the Shark Week festivities for free.

Check out some of the closest calls on Shark Week below.