Paul de Gelder drives Shark Channel 9 debut with 2009 attack
Paul de Gelder is fronting shark channel 9 as Channel Nine launches Shark! with six celebrities in the Bahamas. The former navy diver, who lost his right hand and right leg in a 2009 bull shark attack, is using the show to push a different view of sharks from the one he had before the bite.
Paul de Gelder and Shark!
On the debut episode on Sunday night, de Gelder said, "Now, I want to change people's perceptions of sharks," and added, "I want to show them how amazing, how beautiful they are, how we can actually co-exist with them." He is not doing that from a distance. Shark! puts him back in the water as an expert after the attack that left him injured during a counter-terrorism training exercise in Sydney Harbour.
Before that 2009 attack, he hated sharks. He later described the injury as losing his "right hand and right leg in one bite," and said, "That shark attack changed my life forever." The cast is built around that shift in perspective: the show asks viewers to watch a survivor lead other people into the same fear he once had.
Six celebrities in the Bahamas
Six celebrities are being taken to the Bahamas on Shark! to confront their fear of sharks and prepare to swim with tiger sharks, hammerhead sharks, and bull sharks. The group includes actor Matt Nable, Ariarne Titmus, Lynne McGranger, Scott Cam, Sam Thaiday, and Tammy Hembrow. Annie Gutteridge, an underwater photographer and conservationist, guides the series with de Gelder.
Scott Cam said filming was confronting. He said, "There was a lot of anxiety throughout the day, because we were diving most days. So you wake up in the morning, you're a bit nervous and filled with anxiety but surprisingly, once I was in the water - because I'm one of those guys, once I'm committed to something, I don't back out - so once I got in the water and got down to the bottom, quite deep, kneeling on the bottom, I was alright, pretty relaxed."
Two weeks and a season two wish
The training ran over two weeks before the celebrities attempted to swim cage-free with sharks, giving Shark! a built-in production rhythm that leans on repeated exposure rather than a single stunt. De Gelder said it was "a really, really wonderful experience," and added, "Hoping we get season two so we can take another group of people."
That is where the show’s commercial test sits: if Shark! can turn a shark-attack survivor into a guide people want to follow, Channel Nine has a format that can be repeated, not just a one-off shock piece. The first measure is already on screen in the Bahamas; the next one is whether the series earns another run.
