MTV'S "THE CHALLENGE: BATTLE OF THE EXES" PREMIERE TOPS WEDNESDAY NIGHT ON CABLE

New York, NY - (January 26, 2012) - The season premiere of "The Challenge: Battle of the Exes" was the best debut in eight seasons for the franchise and Wednesday's #1 original cable series. "The Challenge: Battle of The Exes" averaged a 1.9 P12-34 rating, and delivered 1.9 million total viewers.

In next weeks episode of "The Challenge: Battle of the Exes" airing on Wednesday, February 1, a drunken action by one Challenger has devastating consequences. And unrequited love is in the air as Wes pines after his partner Mandi, and Naomi makes jealous one-sided claims over Leroy.

"The Challenge" saw its highest numbers on mtv.com for the franchise since 2009, with 53k unique visitors. The "Exes" show page saw a 26 percent increase in traffic over "The Rivals" premiere. "Battle of the Exes" trended #1 right out of the gate and in total, six terms from the show trended throughout the hour.

"The Challenge: Battle of the Exes," was created for MTV by Bunim/Murray Productions. Jonathan Murray, Scott Freeman and Justin Booth serve as Executive Producers. Jacquelyn French is the MTV Executive in charge of production.

Source: The Nielsen Company. Live+SD P12-34 coverage ratings. Rank on 000s.

About MTV:

MTV is the world's premier youth entertainment brand. With a global reach of more than a half-billion households, MTV is the cultural home of the millennial generation, music fans and artists, and a pioneer in creating innovative programming for young people. MTV reflects and creates pop culture with its Emmy(R), Grammy(R) and Peabody(R) award-winning content built around compelling storytelling, music discovery and activism across TV, online and mobile. MTV's sibling networks MTV2 and mtvU each deliver unparalleled customized content for young males, music fans and college students, and its online hub MTV.com is a leading destination for music, news and pop culture. MTV is a unit of Viacom Inc. (NASDAQ: VIA, VIAB), one of the world's leading creators of programming and content across all media platforms.