An Animal Planet faux-documentary on mermaids, "Mermaids: The New Evidence," has angered some viewers, who feel they were fooled by the hoax's realistic-looking production techniques. The special was a follow-up to last year's "docufiction" special "Mermaids: The Body Found," which proved a ratings hit with the cable channel, and this year's follow-up garnered about 3.6 million viewers. It played it straight for nearly the entire duration of the special before revealing that what viewers had been watching was fictive. Some viewers took to Twitter to express their indignation, including some who appear to take exception to the implication that mermaids were in fact not real.
"So I'm pretty sure that government didn't want people to know about mermaids so they covered it up by calling it a 'hoax' on the news," wrote one.
Others seemed to feel they'd wasted their time.
"spent 3 hours last night watching all the mermaid stuff and come to find out this morning on the news its all a hoax...wtf?" wrote one user.
"#AnimalPlanet. You are dead to me. You got me on your little "Mermaid" hoax. What was the freaking point???" said another.
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Others showed their concern that despite the disclaimer at the end of the documentary, the public could end up being misled. Andrew David Thaler, who writes for Southernfriedscience.com and describes himself as a "deep-sea biologist, population/conservation geneticist, and backyard farm advocate," wrote of the special, "It's not satire. It's not parody. It's a giant middle finger to the public"
The Los Angeles Times noted that the special marked a departure from Animal Planet's usual reality programming and quoted the channel's president and general manager Marjorie Kaplan, who called it "a watershed -- and a watercooler -- moment for Animal Planet."
Charlie Foley, the creator, writer and executive producer of the special as well as the senior vice president of development for Animal Planet, said he wanted to story to "appeal to a sense of genuine possibility" in an interview with MNN.com.
"Using a straight, documentarian approach made the story more persuasive by appealing more to a sense of intellectual possibility as well as emotional possibility," Foley went on. "I think the story works because it's possible to believe that mermaids might have an evolutionary basis; I think it works because you can believe they are real. And personally, I don't think there's any story more appealing than a legend that can be believed."
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