With the time crunch that is junior year currently plaguing myself and many others,  there isn’t very much time to follow a specific television show or even watch television in general. Even when I get around to it, I usually just watch Sportscenter or a sports game. Very rarely do I actually make time for a drama, comedy or reality show.

So this makes it all the more impressive that reality television show, “Finding Bigfoot” airing on Animal Planet, has made its way into my personal schedule. Every Sunday at 10 p.m., I settle down and watch three bigfoot-believers make screeching calls, knock on wood and set up traps, all in the name of catching the elusive creature.

Why the show intrigues me is not immediately clear; I’m not an obsessed bigfoot believer or someone who simply watches the show to see them catch bigfoot. Instead, the intoxicating allure of the show comes with the hosts’ unwavering belief and endless optimism.

The hosts, Bobo, Matt, Cliff and Renee, often spend the entire show scrambling to justify obvious evidence contradicting the existence of bigfoot. For instance, the show often begins with an analysis and recreation of grainy footage or a photo. During the recreation it often becomes blatantly clear that the stand-in bigfoot, often Bobo, is much taller than the supposedly “massive” bigfoot, however the hosts often counter that assertion with the statement that the figure is “obviously” a juvenile or child bigfoot. I mean, how could it be anything else? This kind of optimistic reasoning is consist throughout the entire show.

But it doesn’t stop there, at nighttime the crew often retreats into the wilderness to try and catch of glimpse of bigfoot themselves. During the night investigation, every single snap of a twig and whisper of a sound is treated as blatant evidence of a bigfoot in their presence. While some may find that ridiculous and annoying, it just simply shows their undying passion for bigfoot. When the night investigation wraps up, their undying optimism shines through once again with firm statements such as, “We know for sure now there are bigfoots in [insert state here].”

It’s massively entertaining to watch these enthusiasts prance around the woods, making strange noises to attract bigfoots, and drawing hasty conclusions. The show has already been renewed for seasons three and four, and while they may never actually see or catch bigfoot, they’ll certainly never stop believing, and I won’t stop watching.