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Shark Week Roundup: New SharkCat Video; 'Fake Documentary'

We could, but we won't, ignore the annual fuss over Discovery Channel's Shark Week.

First, there's word that even some of the week's biggest fans are upset with what The Atlantic Wire says was Sunday night's "fake documentary" that kicked things off.

We missed the show, but it seems that Megalodon: The Monster Shark Lives, "teased the notion that this massive shark was still alive today, when, in reality, fossils of the frightening Megalodon stopped showing up around 2 million years ago," Atlantic Wire writes.

Star Trek: The Next Generation actor-turned-blogger Wil Wheaton, who says he loves Shark Week, thinks Discovery Channel "owes its viewers an apology." He believes the documentary was "more suited for the SyFy channel."

Shark Week executive producer Michael Sorensen tells Fox411 that "we wanted to explore the possibilities of Megalodon. ... It's one of the most debated shark discussions of all time, can Megalodon exist today? It's Ultimate Shark Week fantasy. The stories have been out there for years and with 95% of the ocean unexplored, who really knows?"

On a much lighter note, just in time for Shark Week there's a new video of SharkCat — a Roomba-riding feline who seems resigned to being dressed in a shark costume and following around a fowl. SharkCat's been something of a YouTube hit the past year or so. Consider the clip your morning break from the day's serious news about terrorist threats, murder trials, government surveillance programs and canceled Obama-Putin summits.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

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Mark Memmott is NPR's supervising senior editor for Standards & Practices. In that role, he's a resource for NPR's journalists – helping them raise the right questions as they do their work and uphold the organization's standards.
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