When Does Shark Week 2017 Start? Full Schedule Released

The most fin-tastic week of summer is almost here! Shark Week 2017 is starting up a bit later this year, but it will take over summer TV programming very soon. Shark Week 2017 starts Sunday, July 23.

Shark Week, which airs on Discovery, will wrap up on July 30. The eight-day schedule has tons of shark-filled specials, and it turns out Olympians love sharks just as much as the rest of us. Michael Phelps will appear in two separate Shark Week specials.

On July 23, Phelps will dive into the ocean for “Phelps vs. Shark: Great Gold vs. Great White.” With 39 world records and 23 Olympic gold medals, the swimmer will find out if he is faster than a Great White. He revealed to Entertainment Weekly that safety was his priority before he went to Cape Town, South Africa to film the Shark Week special.

READ: Michael Phelps To Race A Great White

“The first thing that came to my mind is I wanted to make sure the safety aspect of it was there,” the father of one said. “That was the only way I was going to do it. And it was there. Being able to have the amount of divers that we were able to have in the water and knowing that I was safe was the biggest thing. But obviously, it’s an opportunity that you don’t get very often — to race a Great White. So I said for sure I would do it.”

Discovery’s Shark Week 2017 will start July 23 and end on July 30. Discovery Communications, Inc.

Phelps will also appear on the closing night of Shark Week as well. In “Shark School with Michael Phelps,” he’ll head to the Bimini Shark Lab to learn all about the frightening finned fish. He’ll learn the difference between shark fact and fiction and learn how to safely dive with sharks. It sounds like Phelps loved diving with the animals.

“It was incredible,” he explained to EW. “It was way better than I could ever imagine, and I hope to have this opportunity where I can see more and more sharks in the wild. There are over 500 species in the world, and I’ve only seen 10 of them, so we have a lot more on the to-do list, and hopefully, we can start knocking out some more bucket list items.”

READ: Great White Spotted Off North Carolina Coast

Check out the full Shark Week 2017 schedule below (all times are EDT):

Sunday, July 23

7 p.m. — “Great White Serial Killer Lives”

8 p.m. — “Phelps vs. Shark: Great Gold vs. Great White

9:10 p.m. — “Shark-Croc Showdown”

10:10 p.m. — “Devil Sharks”

11:10 p.m. — “Shark After Dark”

Monday, July 24

8 p.m. — “Shark Vortex”

9 p.m. — “Return To The Isle Of Jaws”

10 p.m. — “Alien Sharks: Stranger Fins”