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Outbyte Driver Updater FREEScan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Outbyte PC Repair FREERepair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →The hosts’ answer, given in a 2016 interview, was that spotting something and filming it for an extended period are very different tasks. In their account, Bigfoot is nocturnal, nomadic and careful to stay out of view, so reports and brief encounters rarely turn into the sustained, clear footage the show was built to find. These are the hosts’ beliefs about the creature they were searching for, not established biological findings. The production company later acknowledged that the team had not found conclusive evidence, and the series ended after 100 episodes in 2018.
What the hosts said about the missing footage
In an April 13, 2016 interview with Gizmodo, the question put to the team was why, after years on air and many cameras, they still had no clear footage. Matt Moneymaker, founder of the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization (BFRO), located the problem in the difference between a witness report and a usable visual record:
- “Getting an extended visual view that would allow you to film them, that’s what’s really, really hard.”
- “These are animals, and they come out at night. They’re very strategic.”
Moneymaker also described the animals as nomadic and careful to stay hidden. Those are his characterizations of the alleged creature. They are not confirmed zoological facts, and no peer-reviewed study is cited in the interview to support them.
Who is on the team
The core cast of the Animal Planet series comprised four people, and the production company, Ping Pong Productions, describes them the same way:
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- James “Bobo” Fay, field caller.
- Cliff Barackman, researcher.
- Matt Moneymaker, BFRO founder.
- Ranae Holland, a field biologist who was the show’s skeptic and did not believe in Bigfoot.
Holland’s skeptical role is the one structural check built into the cast: the team searched for the creature while one member openly doubted it existed.
How an episode was built
TIME’s June 6, 2014 account of the show describes a repeatable episode structure. The team typically worked through these stages:
- Investigate a reported sighting or piece of evidence.
- Interview the witnesses who made the report.
- Gather local lore about the area.
- Evaluate the clues that have been collected.
- Search the area at night.
TIME described witness reports, large footprints, broken branches and animal sounds as recurring elements of episodes. In the same piece, Fay said of the creatures: “They’re so freakin’ elusive it drives me nuts, man.” The structure explains why the show produced many leads and few decisive images: the evidence it gathered was mostly circumstantial.
Equipment and what it can and cannot prove
According to the same TIME account, night searches used audio equipment and night-vision or infrared cameras. Those tools extend what a crew can observe after dark, but they do not change the underlying problem the hosts described. A camera records only the moments when an animal is in frame and the light and distance allow a usable image, so a field crew still depends on luck and timing. No specific camera model or brand was named in the reporting.
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Footage from night-vision and infrared cameras, and audio recordings, can document what was present at a location at a given time. Neither is capable, by itself, of identifying an unknown animal. The show’s finale and retrospective coverage made the same point: the production company says the BFRO may not have found conclusive evidence of its quarry.
How the series ended, by date
| Date | Event | Source |
|---|---|---|
| April 13, 2016 | Hosts explain the missing footage in a Gizmodo interview | Gizmodo |
| April 24, 2018 | Animal Planet announces the 100th and final episode for May 27, 2018, after a hiatus of more than a year | TheWrap |
| May 27, 2018 | Two-hour finale special airs with the four original investigators and a retrospective on the series | TheWrap |
| February 8, 2021 | Two-hour special Finding Bigfoot: The Search Continues begins streaming on Discovery+ | TheWrap, February 2021 report |
The 2021 special is a one-off reunion. The reporting does not show that it led to a new season. Ping Pong Productions says the series produced 100 episodes covering 38 states and eight countries, figures the company states on its own undated series page.
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Why the show stopped: what is and is not established
Animal Planet has not given a documented reason for ending the original run in the coverage reviewed here. The only explanation offered comes from a December 2021 column in Reality Blurred, which said the show “basically ran its course” after 100 episodes. The column also reported that the 2018 finale drew 604,000 viewers, compared with about 1.2 million average viewers in season one. That is the columnist’s reading of audience figures, not a network statement, and the audience numbers are reported by the column without a fuller breakdown.
Readers should treat the ratings comparison as context rather than cause. A drop in audience does not, on its own, show why a network chose to stop, and no executive or network statement in the reporting ties the decision to viewership.
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Current availability
The reporting does not establish which streaming services carry the original episodes today, or in which countries. Check the current catalog for your region on the platform where you expect to watch rather than relying on the 2021 launch report, which covers the special and not the full run.
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