Animal Planet's RIVER MONSTERS Snares Gigantic Ratings as Best Season Premiere in Network History

In Sunday night's season premiere of Animal Planet's best-performing series ever, extreme angler and biologist Jeremy Wade goes on expedition to Thailand in search of a massive freshwater stingray known to attack man with its serrated 10-inch dagger-like tail. Not only does Wade find and capture the culprit, he also lured in a record audience for "Death Ray," ranking as Animal Planet's best season premiere ever among P18-49 (971K) and P25-54 (879K), and bringing in more than 1.7M P2+ viewers. The season premiere of RIVER MONSTERS scored a 1.3 HH rating and 0.9 P18-49 rating, ranking among the Top 5 among ad-supported cable at 10 PM. Also, the season debut achieved a 0.8 rating among P25-54 with the 879,000 delivery ranking as the second-best regularly airing telecast ever for Animal Planet, only trailing the April 2009 premiere of RIVER MONSTERS "Killer Catfish."

Diving even deeper, "Death Ray" earned a 1.0 M25-54 rating, a 1.1 M18-49 rating and averaged 0.7 rating among both W25-54 and W18-49. The premiere topped the season one debut episode by 18% among HH, 50% among P18-49 and 33% among P25-54, with gains driven more by women (+75%) than M25-54 (+11%).

"Clearly, audiences have responded to the mysteries of the deep that Jeremy takes them on in RIVER MONSTERS," noted Marjorie Kaplan, president and general manager of Animal Planet Media. "RIVER MONSTERS isn't simply a fishing show... it's a murder mystery with intriguing characters and a storyline with multiple twists and turns. And fans have been patient since it's been nearly a year since we've had fresh new monsters to find."

Online, RIVER MONSTERS also had a strong showing on YouTube, with 850,000 views for an exclusive clip of the Goliath Tigerfish from the series.

RIVER MONSTERS airs each Sunday at 10 PM over the next six weeks with episodes filmed from around the globe. Some of the creatures Wade searches for include the Nile Perch, Snakehead Fish, Goliath Tigerfish and Freshwater River Shark.

In RIVER MONSTERS, extreme angler and biologist Jeremy Wade is back on the hunt for legendary, flesh-eating freshwater fish in another season of Animal Planet's best-performing series ever. Wade's international excursions into the dark side of the watery depths mixes action and adventure with incredible mysteries, edge-of-the-seat chases and a battle of wills between man and the nearly supernatural beasts that lurk in the world's serpentine waterways. The new season brings Wade to some of the most scenic and feared locations on Earth in search of all-new, mysterious marine life. And, like all the best horror movies, the images are intense, immediate, gritty and real.

RIVER MONSTERS is produced for Animal Planet by Icon Films. Harry and Laura Marshall are the executive producers for Icon Films, and Lisa Lucas is the executive producer for Animal Planet. Charlie Foley is vice president of development for Animal Planet.

About Animal Planet

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.

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