• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, June 21, 2023

Summer’s annual shark showdown between NatGeo and Discovery arrives next month, but for the fifth consecutive summer, “Sharknado” is missing.

This year’s Shark Week is the 35th for Discovery. It starts on July 23, emceed by “Aquaman” star Jason Momoa.

Meanwhile, SharkFest on NatGeo will have 72 hours of shark content running from Sunday, July 2, through Monday, July 10. 

Twenty-two hours will be original, says NatGeo, including “Bull Shark Vs. Hammerhead” (pictured above) and “Sharks Vs. Dolphins.”

NatGeo’s SharkFest content will be shared on other Disney platforms such as Nat Geo WILD, Nat Geo Mundo, Disney+, Hulu and ESPN2.

But there will be no “Sharknado.” For six glorious summers -- 2013 through 2018 -- a new “Sharknado” movie was a highly anticipated annual event. 

In the first one, “Sharknado,” Los Angeles was the site of the series’ first super tornado. In all of them, hundreds of killer sharks were thrown toward shore as powerful funnel storms touched down on the surfaces of the world’s oceans.

Once airborne, the sharks flew like missiles into city centers, where they attacked the human residents with bloody impunity.

After the first one, the series spread across the country and around the world and so did the “Sharknado” movie phenomenon.

In “Sharknado 2: The Second One,” a sharknado superstorm slammed into New York City.

“Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No!” had its airborne killer sharks wreaking havoc along the entire Eastern Seaboard.

Then, in “Sharknado 4: The Fourth Awakens,” the action shifted to the inland United States as a super-tornado touched down over a Las Vegas casino that just happened to possess a giant shark tank.

“Sharknado 5: Global Swarming” brought the deadly sharknadoes to foreign shores around the world. 

And finally, “Sharknado 6: It’s About Time,” had the Sharknado-fighting team -- led, as always, by Ian Ziering as Fin Shepard -- traveling back in time to battle sharknadoes throughout human history.

“Sharknado 6” represented the end of this beloved series, leaving a void in summer’s annual parade of shark-infested content.

The reason was a change of direction at Syfy. For many years, Syfy was known for its “Sharknado” series and scores of other campy “sci-fi” movies, including a three-installment “Sharktopus” series, and the holiday-themed “Santa Jaws” and “Christmas Icetastrophe.” But that’s all over now.