INTERNET CELEBRITY PHILIP DEFRANCO TAPPED BY DISCOVERY TO HOST "SHARK WEEK" PROGRAMMING EVENT DRIVEN ENTIRELY BY SOCIAL MEDIA

- DeFranco to Also Host Anniversary Countdown Special 'SHARK WEEK'S 25 BEST BITES' -

To celebrate 25 years of the pop culture phenomenon SHARK WEEK, Discovery Channel is putting viewers in control with YouTube Celebrity Philip DeFranco at the helm. For the first time ever, fans on social media will determine what appears on Discovery Channel in "Shark Week Chompdown." Beginning Sunday, August 12th at 9PM - the kickoff of the 25th anniversary of SHARK WEEK - fans can take to Twitter and SHARK WEEK'S Facebook page to vote on which item a massive mechanical megalodon shark - featured in the show "Sharkzilla" - will crush with its huge hydraulic jaws.

Philip DeFranco, of The Philip DeFranco Show on Revision3 will host the nightly event, asking people to Tweet their votes using hashtags that will appear on the screen and to vote through a live poll on Facebook. The results will be tabulated and the item garnering the most votes that night will fall victim to the shark's 6" long razor-sharp teeth and crushed to bits for all the country to see.

DeFranco will also host "Shark Week's 25 Best Bites" on Thursday, August 16th at 10PM E/P. The one-hour program is a jaw-dropping look back at the greatest breaches, bites, and brushes with the ocean's apex predator. DeFranco takes viewers on a fast-paced ride "Into the Shark Bite," with "Sharks After Dark," living through a "Sharkbite Summer" and how to protect oneself from a "Great White Appetite." From shark attacks to never-before-seen camera angles, and featuring insights from some of the veteran wildlife filmmakers behind the shots, the countdown culminates with the greatest shot in SHARK WEEK history.

Tune in to the Discovery Channel on Sunday, August 12th to celebrate 25 years of the ocean's apex predator taking over the network - and don't say we didn't warn you!

SHARK WEEK 2012 LINE-UP

AIR JAWS APOCALYPSE

Premieres Sunday, August 12th at 9PM E/P

Picking up where 2011's Emmy(R)-nominated ULTIMATE AIR JAWS left off, photographer, author and shark expert Chris Fallows and legendary natural history producer Jeff Kurr embark on a quest to learn more about the great white sharks of Seal Island, South Africa - and one shark in particular. Colossus is a massive 14-foot great white that dominates all other sharks in the area. Kurr and his team push the envelope even further with a new camera specially designed for the shoot, new angles and new hair-raising encounters... even if it means risking their lives for the ultimate close-up with Colossus. And what they discover in this yearlong filming expedition is a true scientific breakthrough: dozens of great whites clustered in shallow water, feeding on smaller sharks and rays - with Colossus dominating the grounds and nearly eating the camera.

SHARK WEEK'S IMPOSSIBLE SHOTS

Premieres Sunday, August 12th at 10PM E/P

A team of wildlife cameramen head to Gaansbaii, South Africa to try to secure a shot of a great white shark that no one has been able to get... yet. Their mission is to capture a previously unseen, and some say impossible, angle of a great white shark's Polaris breach. Their task quickly turns into a race against time as weather and luck work against them and their window of opportunity to film this extremely difficult shot closes fast. Using state-of-the-art camera technology and their own ingenuity, the crew attempts to film a bird's-eye-view of the breach at super high speed, which would put them in the company of some of the greatest cameramen ever to work on SHARK WEEK, who have pushed the limits of camera technology and their own will to get 'impossible' shots. Will this team join the ranks of the greats?

SHARKZILLA

Premieres Monday, August 13th at 9PM E/P

To celebrate the monumental 25th anniversary of Shark Week, Discovery is resurrecting the largest shark to ever swim in our oceans, a predator so fierce he could have bitten a T Rex in two: the mighty Megalodon. The size of a city bus, these prehistoric sharks were as large as 60 feet long and weighed at least 100,000 pounds. This shark was the ultimate 'Jaws': Megalodons had 250 serrated teeth, each six inches long, set in jaws six feet wide and eight feet tall. In response to questions raised by a Miocene era crime scene, a team of engineers and paleontologists work together to design and build this monster, to see just what he was capable of. Enlisting the help of MythBusters' Kari Byron, Grant Imahara and Tori Belleci, the team puts these chilling chompers to the test.

MYTHBUSTERS' JAWSOME SHARK SPECIAL

Premieres Monday, August 13th at 10PM E/P

This year marks the 25th anniversary of what has become a truly epic week in television - and no celebration would be complete without the MythBusters. Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman have put themselves in some pretty hair-raising scenarios to bust the biggest shark myths over the years, and now they count down their top 25 of all time. The duo also take on new myths, show never-seen-before footage and reveal the #1 shark myth that will quite literally blow people away. Get ready to go back in the water as the MythBusters' best shark moments are unleashed!

HOW JAWS CHANGED THE WORLD

Premieres Tuesday, August 14th at 9PM E/P

There are very few movies we can honestly say truly changed the world - but "Jaws" is one of them. Audiences stood in lines that wrapped entire city blocks to watch the world's first summer blockbuster. Careers were made, fortunes created, and ways of directing and scoring movies and shooting special effects were all changed forever when it was released. But the impact the film had on the oceans and their inhabitants was as big as the audience it found - and just as surprising. In the aftermath of the film's release, great white sharks were vilified and killed, leading to their near-disappearance from the eastern seaboard. At the same time, public fascination with sharks led to a golden age of shark science that completely changed our view of the ocean and how it works. And as the science began showing us how real sharks behave, it spurred a worldwide conservation effort whose earliest champion was.... Jaws author Peter Benchley.

ADRIFT: 47 DAYS WITH SHARKS

Premieres Tuesday, August 14th at 10PM E/P

During a routine search and rescue mission over the Pacific in WWII, an American plane crashed into shark-infested waters. This is the inspiring true story of two war heroes - one an Olympian, one a pastor's son - who managed to survive a record-breaking 47 days at sea in a life raft. They subsisted on only the food they were able to catch from the ocean and the water they were able to collect from the rain, all while fighting off a gang of sharks that were their constant companions. But when they finally did reach land, it was only the beginning of their troubles. What happened to these men is one of the greatest tests of faith, will and endurance of our time.

SHARK FIGHT

Premieres Wednesday, August 15th at 9PM E/P

They've been through the ultimate nightmare, hand-to-jaw combat against the ocean's apex predators, losing limbs and barely escaping with their lives. Yet even after the attacks, they're still fighting, but what for will surprise you. Amazingly, dozens of shark attack victims around the world have devoted their lives to saving their attackers. They have turned what could have been tragedy into their life's mission, becoming some of the most powerful shark advocates on the planet. Meet the Shark Survivors and hear their stories of resilience and triumph as they fight what they consider the ultimate battle: saving sharks and our oceans.

GREAT WHITE HIGHWAY

Premieres Thursday, August 16th at 9PM E/P

Right outside the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco is home to some of the biggest great white sharks in the world...but only for part of the year. Teams of scientists from Stanford University's Hopkins Marine Station in Monterey Bay have spent years tagging and tracking these sharks to find out why they come here, why they leave and where they go when they do - out into the Pacific on the Great White Highway. But the sharks have kept much about their lives completely secret, leaving researchers with little information about what they spend their summers doing and almost no idea about where they mate or bear their young. Now, armed with new technologies, the team is hoping to wire the ocean and find out how these sharks live their lives- and why California is one of the biggest stops on the Great White Highway.

SHARK WEEK'S 25 BEST BITES

Premieres Thursday, August 16th at 10PM E/P

SHARK WEEK celebrates its 25th anniversary with a jaw-dropping look back at the greatest breaches, brushes, and bites with the ocean's apex predator. YouTube celebrity Philip DeFranco takes viewers on a fast-paced ride through all of SHARK WEEK'S greatest hits, including going "Into the Shark Bite," cavorting with "Sharks After Dark," living through a "Sharkbite Summer" and learning how to avoid a "Great White Appetite." And go behind the scenes to see the best bites in SHARK WEEK history.