I’ve watched “Finding Bigfoot” on Animal Planet exactly once, (there’s are full episodes at this link on YouTube if you’re interested) and I was rolling my eyes the whole time at how gullible everyone seemed. There were a lot of anecdotal stories from people who claimed to see “Sasquatch” a few feet away from them or whatever, but of course no one had any real evidence. They used infrared cameras at night to create drama as they skulked around the woods trying to find a humanoid creature. It was dumb and seemed fake to me, but people must like it since it’s still airing. Some seem to find it hilarious, and I have to admit it’s unintentionally funny. (Check out the sasquatch calls at 33:00 into this video.) The third season will premiere in November.

Another cryptozoology show which aired on Animal Planet this year was the popular and controversial “Mermaids: The Body Found.” It was formatted like a documentary featuring “scientists” who claimed that there was a government cover up of human-like sea creatures, but the whole thing was fake. Some people were duped by the show, which didn’t reveal that it was a put on until the end credits. There was even a dumb and momentarily scary “cell phone footage” of a kid finding a mermaid on the beach. (You can watch that on this link. It’s scary like a fun house is scary.)

Well the cast of “Finding Bigfoot” did a press conference in which the leader of the team of crack Bigfoot “experts” got pissy when someone tried to equate mermaids with bigfoot(s). Because in his mind they’re totally different.

The press tour reporters have spent nearly two weeks in a hotel interviewing actors and executives promoting TV shows. So when Animal Planet rolls out this panel the critics are, understandably, thinking: Show us bigfoot or GTFO.

A critic points out: If these guys actually find bigfoot, such huge news is not going to really stay quiet until a regular episode of Finding Bigfoot airs. One asks: Has Animal Planet run out of real animals to do shows about? Yet another wonders: First Animal Planet airs a mermaids special, now this — isn’t Animal Planet damaging its brand with this stuff?

Animal Planet’s president, Marjorie Kaplan, is good humored about the situation. “Animal Planet has many shows about animals that may be more familiar to you,” she says. “Finding Bigfoot is an exploration of the secret corners of the planet … There are places on this planet that we know about and places we don’t … New species are being found all the time.”

She also points out the network’s Mermaids: The Body Found special* got “extraordinarily” high ratings.

The Finding Bigfoot team, however, is far less amused by the critics’ skepticism. Seems there’s a lot of anecdotal evidence pointing to the existence of bigfoot and this crew are true believers. (There is more than one bigfoot, they say, and they mostly come out at night … mostly…)

“I’ve had one 15 feet away growling at me,” declares bigfoot researcher Matt Moneymaker. “So that’s why I think it’s [unfortunate] when people say they’re not real. They exist … I don’t think people realize how many witnesses there are out there … For those who don’t think these things exist, [famed primatologist] Jane Goodall thinks they exist** — and she may know a little more about it than you do.”

“You can’t equate bigfoot with mermaids,” bristles bigfoot researcher James “Bobo” Fay. “You’re ignorant of the subject matter.”

So is there solid real evidence of bigfoot?

Absolutely, they say. There’s all kinds of evidence! Except, you know, an actual or former bigfoot.

“There’s every kind of evidence that they exist,” Moneymaker says. “Except bones. Except a carcass.”

[From EW]

As for all that evidence, even Moneymaker has admitted that “Finding Bigfoot” is edited by producers to make average events look like potential bigfoot sightings. There were two incidents, one in which they spotted a horse (that’s at 37:00 into this video), and in another a human sneaking around (that video is below) that were cut to make it look like it could have been bigfoot, never revealing the truth to the audience.

What else are they going to do to give this show drama? Maybe next time Animal Planet will realize that they need to go the “fake documentary” route for whatever mythical species they want to feature. That seems to get higher ratings than putting these believers in the woods with cameras and taping them freaking out.

Here’s a clip. I believe this is the one that was a human edited so that the realization that it was just a guy in the woods was never aired. Moneymaker wrote of this “The thing I ran after up the hill was a human — someone who was sneaking around us in the woods trying to watch the production in progress. I said so repeatedly and vehemently at the time, for the cameras, but they edited out all of that in order to make it seem unclear what I was chasing after.” The dude still believes in Bigfoot, though.

Photo credit: Discovery TV