Discovery's SHARK WEEK 2014 Breaks Viewership Records

Discovery's Shark Week 2014 broke viewership records pulling in the highest ratings in its 27-year history on Sunday August 10, earning a historic 2.27 P25-54 rating and delivering 3.64 million total viewers P2+ delivery. This is the highest-rated evening ever for Shark Week to date and the network's 13th highest-rated Primetime evening ever with the biggest year over year gains coming from Women 25-54 (+18%).

Sunday night was up +6% over last year in the Persons 25-54 demo in the same time period. Additionally, Shark of Darkness: Wrath of Submarine, at 9 PM, earned a 2.43 P25-54 rating and delivered an average of 3.825 million viewers (Persons 2+).

Air Jaws: Fin of Fury, at 8 PM, earned a 1.96 P25-54 rating and delivered an average of 3.298 million viewers (Persons 2+), ranking as the #6 all-time top rated programs out of over 135 Shark Week telecasts, up +57% over last year's programming at the same time. This year's inaugural Shark After Dark, SHARK WEEK's late-night talk show at 11 PM, earned a 1.03 P25-54 ratings and delivered an average of 1.556 million viewers P2+. This is the highest-rated late night for Discovery since last year's debut of the late night talker.

Shark Week also continues to take a bite out of the social conversation, driving more than four million interactions on Facebook through nearly three million individuals on Sunday. The premiere lineup kept Shark Week a trending topic on Facebook all day, and drove 11 trending topics on Twitter during primetime. Shark Week premieres nabbed the two of the top five spots on Nielsen SocialGuide's Twitter TV ranking, and SharkWeek.com saw a 10 percent increase in visitors from last year, with 1.5 million streams during the past four weeks (up 18 percent from 2013).

SHARK WEEK, television's longest running must-see summer TV event, continues with new specials airing tonight Monday, August 11, with Jaws Strikes Back, at 9 PM ET/PT and Monster Hammerhead at 10 PM ET/PT. Shark After Dark airs live through Thursday, August 14, at 11 PM ET/PT with tonight's show welcoming actor Danny Trejo (MACHETE, FROM DUSK TILL DAWN and HEAT), FAST N' LOUD's Richard Rawlings and Aaron Kaufman, among others.

Air Jaws: Fin of Fury, is produced by Shark Entertainment with Jeff Kurr as Executive Producer. For Discovery, Julie Meisner Eagle served as executive producer. Shark of Darkness: Wrath of Submarine is by Pilgrim Studios for Discovery with Pilgrim's Craig Piligian and Mike Nichols as executive producers. For Discovery, executive producers are Dolores Gavin and Mike Sorensen. Shark After Dark is produced for Discovery Channel by Sony owned Embassy Row and Green Mountain West. Executive Producer is Michael Davies for Embassy Row and Craig Ferguson and Philip Cottone for Green Mountain West. For Discovery, Executive Producers are Denise Contis, Craig Coffman and Scott Lewers.

Source: Nielsen. NHI Calendar. 8/10/14. Live+SD AA% and (000).

Read more at http://thefutoncritic.com/ratings/2014/08/11/discovery-channel-reels-in-highest-ratings-for-shark-week-in-27-years-shattering-viewership-records-436114/20140811discovery01/#1lQaIZTvzgEyGDKt.99

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