In its Sunday night broadcast of "Eaten Alive," Discovery Channel tried to draw in viewers with one of the most bizarre spectacles ever: a man being eaten alive by a snake.
"We are going to make me as appealing as possible so the snake just goes, 'Well, I got this big thing here. Might as well get a free meal.'"
In the pre-recorded show, self-described naturalist Paul Rosalie donned a custom-built suit and went head first into an 18-foot-long anaconda in what he calls an attempt to promote Amazon rainforest conservation.
After the show was announced, the channel was inundated with accusations of animal abuse. So Discovery made it clear in the show's marketing that the event had already happened and both man and snake emerged unscathed.
Discovery was apparently banking on viewers being just too curious not to watch the program, despite already knowing nothing was going to go wrong. And that's something Discovery has been accused of a lot recently: putting spectacle before science.
"Well, I can tell you a lot about snakes, and I don't need to be eaten by one," one zoologist said on CNN.
That's a popular sentiment: that despite Rosalie's claims that the stunt will promote conservation, it really all just comes down to the desire for a ratings spike.
Twice now, the network has broadcast tightrope walker Nik Wallenda as he traversed first the Grand Canyon and later the Chicago skyline without any sort of safety equipment. The first was Discovery's highest-ever rating, drawing 10.7 million U.S. viewers.
There were also plans this year to run a live broadcast of a BASE jumper leaping from the peak of Mount Everest in a wing suit, but that stunt was canceled after a deadly avalanche on the mountain. But Discovery's turn for the sensational doesn't stop at daredevil stunts.
The channel also provoked the ire of scientists last year when it aired a fake documentary claiming the giant pre-historic shark Megalodon is still roaming the ocean. A small disclaimer was the only hint that the story was fictional, and Discovery was accused of being deliberately misleading.
But the criticism isn't hurting the channel's numbers. As The New York Times wrote in October: "Extreme stunts command a huge live viewership and social media attention, leading advertisers to pay a premium to reach captive audiences."
So expect to see more out-there programming from Discovery. One executive told The Hollywood Reporter that the channel receives 10 to 15 stunt pitches every week.
About the Author
