If It's Summer It Must Be Discovery Channel's SHARK WEEK - Returns July 30 With Host Mike Rowe and Seven All-New Specials at 9 PM

If It's Summer It Must Be Discovery Channel's SHARK WEEK - Returns July 30 With Host Mike Rowe and Seven All-New Specials at 9 PM

SILVER SPRING, Md., June 27 /PRNewswire/ -- Tagging great whites with satellite devices to track their migration patterns ... testing the strength of chain mail in the middle of a reef shark feeding frenzy ... preparing chum, a mixture of chopped fish parts and blood used to attract sharks -- SHARK WEEK host Mike Rowe (Dirty Jobs) finds out that working with sharks can be extremely dirty work.

Cable television's longest-running programming event, SHARK WEEK first premiered in 1988 and remains a viewer favorite. Last year, SHARK WEEK was watched by 20.6 million people with eight million people tuning in to the premiere special, MythBusters: Jaws Special.

SHARK WEEK kicks off on Discovery Channel Sunday, July 30 with Mike Rowe's two-hour special Dirty Jobs: Jobs That Bite, and ends Friday, August 4 with the one-hour special Dirty Jobs: Jobs That Bite Harder. Mike shows viewers how these jobs help further our knowledge about sharks and shark behavior by, among other things, making and testing shark repellants and chain mail protective suits -- and then diving amid a hungry group of sharks to test them.

SHARK WEEK is produced in conjunction with leading shark researchers around the world, and provides viewers with valuable knowledge about the behavior and characteristics of this diverse and majestic species.

The complete schedule of SHARK WEEK 2006 premieres includes:
* Dirty Jobs: Jobs That Bite (Sunday, July 30, 9-11 PM (ET/PT)) -- To
kick off SHARK WEEK, fearless host Mike Rowe climbs into a shark cage
in South Africa and comes face-to-face with great whites, performs a
shark necropsy, tags great whites for migratory observation, and
creates and tests a shark repellant (on himself!) in the Bahamas.

* Shark Attack Survivors (Monday, July 31, 9-10 PM (ET/PT)) -- This
special exposes the truth about the world's most efficient marine
predator through an examination of shark attack case studies and first-
hand accounts, delivers important information on how to avoid or
survive a shark encounter, and joins forces with shark experts to
reveal the science and psychology behind shark behavior patterns,
explaining how sharks select their prey and why attacks occur.

* Perfect Shark (Tuesday, August 1, 9-10 PM (ET/PT)) -- Is there such a
thing as a perfect shark? Host Mike deGruy, who has filmed sharks for
over 30 years, heads out into the world's oceans, examining the most
streamlined and extreme designs of sharks today. He also looks at
sharks of the prehistoric past, via a CGI-enhanced "virtuarium" that
allows him to conjure up and interact with images of any shark that
ever lived.

* Sharks: Are They Hunting Us? (Wednesday, August 2, 9-10 PM (ET/PT)) --
Animal behaviorist Dave Salmoni, a relative novice around sharks, meets
with shark experts around the world to ask the questions that
"everyman" might have about sharks, including: Are sharks really out
to get humans? Are attacks really on the rise?

* Shark Rebellion (Thursday, August 3, 9-10 PM (ET/PT)) -- The Brazilian
port city of Recife recorded only one shark attack in 75 years. In the
past decade, there have been an astonishing 45 attacks with 16
fatalities. An international team of scientists (including the
University of Florida's Dan Huber) investigates what may have changed
to cause this dramatic increase -- is it the sharks or could it be
human encroachment?

* Dirty Jobs: Jobs That Bite Harder (Friday, August 4, 9-10 PM (ET/PT)) -
- Mike Rowe is back to sink his teeth into another hour of dirty jobs
with sharks. He helps make a fiberglass replica of sharks for
fisherman who release their catch and, in his dirtiest job of SHARK
WEEK, Mike heads to the Bahamas to test a chain mail shark suit -- in
the middle of a feeding frenzy of Caribbean reef sharks.

* Science of Shark Sex (Friday, August 4, 10-11 PM (ET/PT)) -- In this
special, viewers travel to the famed Tiputa pass in French Polynesia,
to study one of the world's greatest concentrations of grey reef
sharks. Since understanding the reproduction of sharks is key to their
preservation, a group of three international scientists set out to
study the grey reef's mating habits, which have never before been
captured on film.

Viewers can learn more exciting facts about sharks online at discovery.com/sharkweek.

SHARK WEEK Executive Producers include: Suzy Geller Wolf, Craig Piligian and Eddie Barbini (Dirty Jobs: Jobs That Bite, Shark Attack Survivors and Dirty Jobs: Jobs That Bite Harder); Maureen Lemire and Vyv Simson (Perfect Shark), Charlie Foley and Phil Fairclough (Sharks: Are They Hunting Us?) and Maureen Lemire and Andrew Waterworth (Shark Rebellion).

Sponsors of SHARK WEEK are Lowes and Sonic Restaurants.

Discovery Communications, Inc. is the leading global real-world media company. Discovery has grown from its core property, the Discovery Channel, first launched in the United States in 1985, to current global operations in 170 countries and territories with nearly 1.4 billion cumulative subscribers. DCI's over 100 networks of distinctive programming represent 27 network entertainment brands including TLC, Animal Planet, Travel Channel, Discovery Health Channel, Discovery Kids, Discovery Times Channel, The Science Channel, Military Channel, Discovery Home Channel, Discovery en Espanol, Discovery Kids en Espanol, Discovery HD Theater, FitTV, Discovery Travel & Living (Viajar y Vivir), Discovery Home & Health and Discovery Real Time. DCI's other properties consist of Discovery Education and Discovery Commerce, which operates more than 100 Discovery Channel Stores in the U.S. DCI also distributes BBC America in the United States. DCI's ownership consists of four shareholders: Discovery Holding Company (NASDAQ:DISCA)(NASDAQ:DISCB), Cox Communications, Inc., Advance/Newhouse Communications and John S. Hendricks, the Company's Founder and Chairman.

For more information and artwork, please log on to http://www.press.discovery.com/

Source: Discovery Channel

CONTACT: Amy Hagovsky, +1-240-662-2931, Amy_Hagovsky@discovery.com, or
Katherine Nelson, +1-604-899-2179, Katherine_Nelson-CW@discovery.com, both of
Discovery Channel

Web site: http://www.discovery.com/

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