Animal Planet's 'Monster Week' is No. 1 in Men with RIVER MONSTERS

Animal Planet's third-annual Monster Week kicked off to a great start on Sunday, May 18. The first night of the nine-day programming stunt helped Animal Planet rank as the #1 ad-supported cable net in prime among M25-54 (483K) and M18-49 (450K) and the #3 and #4 ad-supported cable net in prime among P25-54 (736K) and P2+ viewers (1.4M), respectively, excluding sports.

In addition, the night helped Animal Planet achieve one of its top-five Sunday-night performances of all time among M25-54 (#4) and M18-49 (#5).

This success was driven by Animal Planet's best-ever-performing series RIVER MONSTERS, with the premiere of "Bone Crusher" drawing in a whopping 599K M18-49, ranking as the #1 ad-supported cable telecast of the night. The episode, which pulled in 1.7M P2+ viewers, places as the series' second-most-watched episode ever among M25-54 (621K).

Monday, May 19 - the second night of MONSTER WEEK - gave Animal Planet its best Monday-night performance since last year's MONSTER WEEK with P18-49 (444K) and P25-54 (421K). This was championed by the 9 PM premiere of a monster-sized River Monsters episode, "Amazon Apocalypse," which drew in 792K P2+viewers. The network placed among the top-10 ad-supported cable networks for the night based on P18-49 (#9) and P25-54 (#10) deliveries.

Animal Planet's MONSTER WEEK (May 18-26) needs nine days to showcase the grotesque and dangerous beasts that sneak in the water and stalk on land. All-new Man-Eating and super-sized specials accompany nightly River Monsters episodes, followed by the River Monsters season finale, "Body Snatcher, which premieres Monday, May 26, at 9 PM ET/PT. Catch Animal Planet's first two-hour, feature-length b-movie, BLOOD LAKE: ATTACK OF THE KILLER LAMPREYS, starring Shannen Doherty, Christopher Lloyd and Jason Brooks, Sunday, May 25, at 9 PM ET/PT.