ANIMAL PLANET'S PUPPY BOWL VIII SCORES BIG ON TELEVISION, ONLINE AND IN THE TWITTERVERSE

(Silver Spring, MD) - On Super Bowl Sunday, PUPPY BOWL VIII had its own huge score-- the most puppy touchdowns ever-- while off the field drawing in 8.7 million unique total viewers across the entire 12-hour marathon. In addition, Animalplanet.com recorded a major victory, hauling in its single highest day of traffic ever with 5.5 million page views and 1.4 million videos streamed. Adding to Animal Planet's trophy case, PUPPY BOWL VIII ranked #1 for social television in cable this past Sunday.

Animal Planet altered its game plan this year, adding more features to the already impressive sports spectacular. As a result, PUPPY BOWL VIII delivered an average 1.6 million P2+ viewers for its 3-5 PM ET/PT premiere and a record high 680,000 P2+ viewers across the day. The most pivotal performance was turned in by rookie addition @meepthebird, Animal Planet's tweeting correspondent, who grabbed 21,000 followers in just one day and received countless marriage proposals. Joining Meep as first timers in the 12-hour pooch-tacular was the Piggy Pep Squad who "hammed" it up on the sidelines and new referee Dan Schachner who graced the gridiron to call puppy penalties.

"I never expected this many followers" says @meepthebird. "Then again, I'm a triple-threat bird: I'm witty, I'm dashing and the puppies dig me."

PUPPY BOWL VIII also ranked #2 overall for social television behind the Super Bowl and ahead of "The Voice." With @meepthebird leading the charge on Twitter, there were more than 200,000 Puppy Bowl-related tweets on game day - some from celebrities including LaToya Jackson, Zooey Deschanel, Homer Simpson, Snooki and Kelly Osbourne. Making Twitter's top trending topics and trending worldwide throughout the day were #puppybowl, #animalplanet, #kittyhalftimeshow and #fumble (this year's Most Valuable Puppy--MVP).

PUPPY BOWL VIII also scored touchdowns for Petfinder.com and for pet adoption nationwide. Petfinder.com posted 5.4 million page views, with visitors up 24% over a year ago, nearly half of whom were first-time visits (48%).

PUPPY BOWL VIII gives viewers the chance to get into a different game with tackles, fumbles and fouls from rambunctious pups that just can't get enough of the action. The "game" takes place in Animal Planet Stadium's custom football field and features an array of puppies including everything from spunky spaniels to baby bassets to mixed breeds as they give their all to make the big plays. All of the animals featured in PUPPY BOWL VIII are adoptable and came from Petfinder.com rescue groups and shelters across the United States.

PUPPY BOWL VIII and the BISSELL(R) KITTY HALF-TIME SHOW are productions of Discovery Studios. For Discovery Studios, Bill Gardner is the executive producer. Melinda Toporoff is the executive producer for 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.