Season Premiere of RIVER MONSTERS Reels in Big Ratings for Animal Planet

The network's best-performing series, RIVER MONSTERS, baited viewers with a two-hour, monster-sized season opener, "Face Ripper," in which host, biologist and extreme angler Jeremy Wade took viewers along as he investigated a horrific death in a Bolivian river where a man's face was ripped to shreds. The season premiere, which aired on Sunday, reeled in gigantic viewers with 1.8M P2+, making it the most-watched season debut in Animal Planet history and the second most watched episode of River Monsters ever.

The season debut, "Face Ripper," saw significant delivery increases among several key demos versus last season's average, including P2+ (+19%, 1.8M vs. 1.5M), HH (+9%, 1.2M vs. 1.1M), P18-49 (+18%, 938k vs. 795k), M18-49 (+28%, 608k vs. 474k) and M25-54 (+9%, 543k vs. 500k).

River Monsters helped Animal Planet rank third, only behind History and AMC, among ad-supported cable nets in the 9-11pm timeslot with M18-49 (excluding sports) and fourth with M25-54. "Face Ripper" ranked as the 7th ad-supported cable telecast of the night among M18-49, just behind Mad Men.

Now in the midst of its fifth season, new episodes of River Monsters premiere every Sunday at 9 PM. Wade continues his quest for answers, taking viewers along as he unravels fish tales of giant killers - where sometimes the fact is stranger than the fiction! In this new season, River Monsters takes treacherous and mysterious to new heights with the most dangerous adventures of his lifetime. Wade's journeys include a mission to Chernobyl's nuclear wastelands in search of mutant fish in a tick-tock race against time to avoid radiation exposure, a trip to Nicaragua to capture an elusive killer torpedo, and a bloodthirsty quest on American soil in pursuit of a prehistoric underwater vampire.

The new season of River Monsters will culminate with a special Memorial Day two-hour season finale on Monday, May 27, at 8 pm ET/PT, which may just uncover the mother of all RIVER MONSTERS. Wade will take viewers along on an Epic mission from the depths of Loch Ness to the volcanoes of Iceland to track down the world's most famous water-dwelling monster. The special episode will air as part of Animal Planet's MONSTER WEEK (Monday, May 20 - Monday, May 27).

RIVER MONSTERS is a co-production of Icon Films and Animal Planet. Harry and Laura Marshall are the executive producers for Icon Films. For Animal Planet, Lisa Lucas is the executive producer, with production support from Jamie Linn and Patrick Keegan. River Monsters was developed by Animal Planet's Charlie Foley.

Animal Planet Media (APM), a multi-media business unit of Discovery Communications, is the world's only entertainment brand that immerses viewers in the full range of life in the animal kingdom with rich, deep content via multiple platforms and offers animal lovers and pet owners access to a centralized online, television and mobile Community for immersive, engaging, high-quality entertainment, information and enrichment. APM consists of the Animal Planet television network, available in more than 96 million homes in the US; online assets www.animalplanet.com, the ultimate online destination for all things animal; the 24/7 broadband channel, Animal Planet Beyond; Petfinder.com, the #1 pet-related Web property globally that facilitates pet adoption; and other media platforms including a robust Video-on-Demand (VOD) service; mobile content; and merchandising extensions.