Shark! review: Yes, Scott Cam is being fed to some sharks – but this new Channel Nine show has a good reason

Shark! ★★★

After a decade spent feeding national icons pig anuses and bull penises on live television, Network 10 last week announced it’s “resting” I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! Our nation’s luminaries could breathe easy knowing the show that turned Gold Logie winner Grant Denyer into a human icy pole and had Shane Warne attacked by an anaconda was on ice.

But just when they thought it was safe to get back in the water, we have Shark!

The cast of Shark! (from left): Matt Nable, Ariarne Titmus, Lynne McGranger, Scott Cam, Sam Thaiday and Tammy Hembrow.Nine

Nine is sating the nation’s celebrity bloodlust with a new show that will have you wondering: Is the battle for ratings so extreme that this network would sacrifice Scott Cam to a dozen bull sharks? “I’m sure Channel Nine doesn’t want me to die,” the longtime host of The Block says sitting on the edge of shark-infested waters. Probably not, right? But I wouldn’t blame you for tuning in to find out.

This series, adapted from a British format which last year featured the likes of Ross Noble, sees six local celebrities thrown into open water with sharks in the Bahamas. It’s not a competition. There are no prizes to be won. Rather, the series promises a journey – with escalating challenges forcing the stars to confront their fears as well as their preconceptions about the animals.

The cast is cleverly constructed, featuring people with varying degrees of terror. Influencer Tammy Hembrow and former NRL player Sam Thaiday are excited for the adventure. The latter, who is of Torres Strait Islander descent, feels a sense of connection to the sharks, with his family totem being a hammerhead.

Lynne McGranger hugs Paul de Gelder in Nine’s new reality series Shark!Nine

Frequent fisherman Scott Cam and actor Matt Nable, who knows people who have been attacked on Sydney’s northern beaches, are more defensive. And Olympic swimmer Ariarne Titmus is simply petrified, trying her best to conquer a genuine phobia.

Then there’s Lynne McGranger. Fresh off her Gold Logie win, this former Home and Away star turns out to be the glue of the group. Funny, plucky and warm, it’s hard not to root for this 72-year-old as she gives “too much information” about her “nervous belly” before her first dive.

Yes, you will see celebrities crying and in genuine physical peril (I can’t imagine the insurance costs). But this show is striving to be more than pure spectacle. It’s also intent on using these challenges to educate participants – and, in turn, viewers – on water safety, shark behaviour and the importance of these animals for local ecosystems. As co-host Paul de Gelder points out, 30 per cent of all sharks are threatened with extinction and controversial measures like nets only place them in greater danger.

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Viewers familiar with Shark Week will know de Gelder well. The former Australian Navy diver has made dozens of shows like this for the Discovery Channel over the past decade, ever since losing his right hand and leg to a bull shark in 2009. Last year he even re-created the incident for a special, How to Survive a Shark Attack (HBO Max).

It’s great to see de Gelder reach a free-to-air audience here and, joined by UK conservationist Annie Guttridge, he walks the tonal tightrope well – even if the messaging can become repetitive.

Given Australia’s high rate of shark bites and fatalities, it’s surprising we haven’t seen something like this sooner. The show is destined to become a talking point, especially as it follows two fatal shark attacks on spear-fishers – one near Rottnest Island and another this week on the Great Barrier Reef – and more calls for a cull.

But if you’re purely watching for the celebrity sadism, I will say – as of the first three episodes watched for this review – Scott Cam has survived.

Shark! premieres at 7pm, on Sunday May 31, on Nine and 9Now. (Nine is the owner of this masthead.)

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