Animal Planet's PUPPY BOWL IX Barks Its Way to Ratings Record

On Super Bowl Sunday, the 49ers ate crow as the Ravens soared to victory with flying colors. All the while, Animal Planet chirped, barked and meowed its way to winning the night in cuteness with PUPPY BOWL IX, which brought in more than 12.4 million unique P2+ viewers over the 12-hour marathon - its largest audience ever!

During the Super Bowl blackout, all of PUPPY BOWL IX's lights remained on, and its viewership surged to 1.1M P2+ viewers from 8:51-9:00 PM (ET/PT). This marked a 54 percent increase compared to the delivery in the prior Puppy Bowl IX segment.

PUPPY BOWL IX, Animal Planet's response to America's love of football, scored multiple touchdowns in the premiere telecast from 3-5 PM (ET/PT) and brought in more than 2.6M P2+ viewers, an increase of 64 percent versus year-ago levels. It dominated across all other major demos with high double-digit gains, delivering 1.8 HH (+60%), 1.2M P18-49 (+94%) and 1.0M P25-54 (+60%). The premiere also helped Animal Planet rank #1 in the timeslot among all cable and #2 in all of TV (behind CBS) with W18-49 (1.4), P18-49 (1.2) and W25-54 (1.2).

PUPPY BOWL IX was the most-buzzed-about show in all of cable, having the most Tweets all day Sunday and coming in second overall only to the Super Bowl. The premiere telecast generated nearly 300,000 Tweets, pummeling last year's total-day record of 214,000 Tweets within the first telecast alone. Doubling last year's performance, PUPPY BOWL IX produced 10 U.S. Trending topics on Twitter throughout the day, including #PuppyBowl and #CuteCam. Several celebrities joined in on the #PuppyBowl fun, including Steve Martin, Miley Cyrus, Zach Braff, Martha Stewart and MAndy Moore. The sideline commentator, @MeepTheBird, gained approximately 19K Twitter followers, bringing the bird's popularity to 34,000. How 'bout that, Poe (Ravens mascot)?

In the digital sphere, PUPPY BOWL IX earned its howling rights, as AnimalPlanet.com welcomed 27 percent more unique visitors versus last year and generated more than 1.6M video streams. PUPPY BOWL IX's Puppy Cam was the second-most-visited draw on the fansite, generating hundreds of thousands of streams on AnimalPlanet.com and beyond.

PUPPY BOWL IX returned for a ninth consecutive year on Sunday, February 3, with an all-star, all-adorable cast itching to play in a winning combination of terrier tackles, canine touchdowns, puppy penalties and Fido first downs. Featuring fan favorites including the water bowl cam, kiss cam and an aerial view of the field provided by a blimp and its hamster pilots, this year's big game marked the return of @MeepTheBird and introduced fans to a special puppy hot tub, a brand-new "Cute Cam" and, in a game-day first, a lovable lineup of hedgehog cheerleaders.

All of the animals featured in PUPPY BOWL IX have been adopted and came from Petfinder.com rescue groups and shelters across the United States and Puerto Rico.

PUPPY BOWL IX and the BISSELL(R) KITTY HALF-TIME SHOW are produced by Discovery Studios for Animal Planet. John Tomlin is the executive producer for Discovery Studios. For Animal Planet, Melinda Toporoff is the executive producer, and Pat Dempsey is the production coordinator.

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 97 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.

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