Finding Bigfoot

 Trying to Find Finding Bigfoot is a crappy TV series that aired on Animal Planet that revolves around a number of ghostbuster wannabes well educated investigators who quest out to find photographic evidence for the mythical Bigfoot creature, turning up empty-handed each and every time without exception. Every episode is thus what is known as a shaggy dog story (or shaggy apeman).

The series has run for way too many nine seasons from 2011 to 2017, with a one-off finale airing in May 2018.

Cast

 * Matt Moneymaker (yes that's his actual name): founder and president of the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization. Yes, someone made an entire organization out of Bigfoot.
 * Cliff Barackman: the man whose job it is to pull evidence directly out of his ass where there is none evidence analyst of the group.
 * James "Bobo" Fay: The "field caller" who, like Cliff, has wasted too many years of his life looking for Bigfoot that he will never get back.
 * Ranae Holland: The vindicated "skeptical" member of the team who does not believe in Bigfoot, which leads one to ask why she'd even be on a Bigfoot TV show in the first place.

Premise (short version)
The team ventures out to find Bigfoot: each time, they fail.

Premise (less short version)
The Finding Bigfoot team drives out to some location where a "witness" saw or heard Bigfoot. From that "evidence", the team commences their multi-night "investigation", which often concludes with an elaborate plan to try and attract Bigfoot, usually involving noise or light, by using boats on a lake, or silent electric ATVs. They also do wood knocks, which mimics the bigfoot's supposed communication. Night-vision technology and forward-looking infrared (FLIR) cameras are used to document these "investigations".

Starting with the second season, locals from around the filming area are invited to come and share their Bigfoot encounter stories, likely to fill any remaining time-slot space.

Series finale (MAJOR SPOILERS BELOW!)
Having finally given up trying to find Bigfoot, the 100th and final episode of Finding Bigfoot aired on May 27th, 2018.

The team never found Bigfoot.

Reception
Depressingly, the show was an instant hit for the Animal Planet, thanks to a large population of extremely gullible viewers. Despite this, the show has received substantial criticism for obvious reasons, including the fact that any Bigfoot footage would have been leaked long before any episode would have even aired, not that this sort of thinking stops viewers from flocking to the show, of course.