A Look Again on the Occasion’s Historical past

The Pet Bowl is a canine lover’s Tremendous Bowl.

Animal Planet’s annual four-legged occasion started in 2005 and practically six million viewers tuned in to the inaugural broadcast, in response to Rolling Stone.

The unique and longest-running call-to-adoption TV occasion has grown in reputation — fetching 12.6 million viewers, per Warner Bros. Discovery, in 2024 when the Pet Bowl celebrated its twentieth anniversary.

“Animal Planet’s Pet Bowl serves as an annual popular culture programming occasion that continues to develop in attain, consciousness and naturally, puppies, yearly,” Howard Lee, president of Discovery Networks, mentioned in a 2025 press launch. “Win or lose, Pet Bowl 21 may have the cutest gamers within the sport and can encourage households throughout the nation to undertake a brand new furry buddy.” 

This 12 months, the Pet Bowl will function 142 rescue puppies (11 of whom are particular wants) from 80 shelters throughout 40 states and two nations. Longtime referee Dan Schachner will name the sport between Crew Ruff and Crew Fluff as they compete for the “Lombarky” trophy.

However how did the Pet Bowl begin? Maintain studying for a glance again on the Pet Bowl’s 21-year historical past.

How did the Pet Bowl begin? 

Animal Planet’s inaugural Pet Bowl passed off in 2005, and the concept took place in a brainstorm for Tremendous Bowl counter-programming.

The scheduling workforce figured one of the simplest ways to attract viewers was to level a digital camera at puppies on a mini soccer subject – one thing akin to the televised burning Yuletide Log that airs each vacation season.

Margo Kent, the manager producer for Pet Bowl I, advised Rolling Stone that it began as a “joke” and that she was shocked when Warner Bros. Discovery gave them the inexperienced gentle.

“It was a kind of moments on the community’s facet — the place every little thing is at all times over-calculated — the place they took a threat and mentioned, ‘You realize what? It’s a humorous concept. Let’s simply do it,’ ” she recalled, including that they solely had an $88,000 price range. “There’s a genius to the simplicity: Who doesn’t like watching puppies play?”

The community had a number of stipulations, although: all of the puppies needed to be adoptable, cute, numerous and filled with character. So, Animal Planet recruited the Washington Animal Welfare League to assist them discover their Pet Bowl gamers.

“We mainly needed to solid the puppies,” Pet Bowl I producer Laurie McGuckin advised Cracked in February 2024. “All advised, we ended up with 25 or 30 puppies.”

Whereas the primary Pet Bowl was extra of a free-for-all set to smooth music — worlds away from the manufacturing it has turn into — there have been a number of memorable moments. A canine named Riley obtained a flag for peeing on the sector of play and Max, a Jack Russell terrier, was chosen because the MVP.

The place are the Pet Bowl puppies from?

At its core, the Pet Bowl is a option to increase consciousness about pet adoption. Every year’s pet individuals come from shelters and rescue organizations throughout the nation and are all obtainable for adoption.

“The largest factor that I hope folks take away from Pet Bowl is you may get nearly any canine you might be on the lookout for in rescue. The canine you are on the lookout for is on the market,” Laurie Johnson, director of Florida Little Canine Rescue, advised PEOPLE in February 2024.

As soon as chosen for the Pet Bowl, some pups go into coaching for his or her TV debut. Kansas Metropolis Chiefs participant Derrick Nnadi took cost of creating Parsnip — a 4-month-old American Staffordshire Terrier/American Pit Bull Terrier combine — forward of the 2025 occasion.

“It makes my day. I really like him to dying,” he advised the Related Press of coaching Parsnip. “He has a variety of uncooked potential. He is gonna be a star.”

On set, canine coach Victoria Schade is answerable for guaranteeing “pet happiness and security throughout gameplay,” as she advised AP in February 2025.

“Considered one of my ‘Pet Bowl’ abilities is studying butts. So I do know when a pet goes to go to the lavatory and I’ll usually say like, ‘Be careful within the 20-yard-line, we’re going to have a deposit’ and everybody’s able to go together with that cleanup,” Schade, who has been working with Animal Planet for 19 years, jokingly added.

Do all of the puppies from the Pet Bowl get adopted? 

On account of main publicity surrounding the Pet Bowl, most pups within the Pet Bowl get adopted earlier than the occasion or inside “minutes” of being proven on TV.

“As quickly as folks begin watching Pet Bowl, they will go to AnimalPlanet.com and search for the pet profile, which can join you with the shelter or rescue heart that has them!” referee Schachner wrote in a 2015 Reddit put up.

“You need to act rapidly,” he continued. “So what we prefer to say is ‘Don’t fear if the canine you fell in love with is not obtainable — as a result of they’re a part of litters, and they’ll most likely have brothers or sisters which you could undertake, even when that one star pet isn’t [available].’ ”

The place is the Pet Bowl filmed? 

The primary Pet Bowl in 2005 was filmed in a studio in Silver Spring, Md., however lately, Animal Planet has shot the four-legged present in Glen Falls, N.Y. on the Cool Insuring Area.

“After all, we have now some New York rescues, however you title it. Florida, Texas, Phoenix, California, Midwest. This 12 months we have now a pup from Nicaragua as a result of we wish to showcase a few of the overpopulation points in Central America,” Schachner advised the New York Publish in February 2025.

He continued, “We solid as broad a web as doable, and the gorgeous factor is these shelters will deliver themselves to Pet Bowl. They don’t have any downside transporting these puppies — which isn’t straightforward. However they don’t have any downside doing it as a result of the fact is as soon as this canine is on nationwide TV, it can, after all, get adopted straight away.”

In contrast to the Tremendous Bowl, the Pet Bowl is not a stay occasion. It’s filmed a number of months upfront, per Vox.

The place can I watch the 2025 Pet Bowl? 

The Pet Bowl can be simulcast throughout Animal Planet, Discovery Channel, TBS, truTV, Max and discovery+ on Feb. 9 at 2 p.m. ET.

Audiences may also be capable of rewatch the three-hour, pup-filled occasion on Max and discovery+ following the 2025 Tremendous Bowl.