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[04/03/12 - 11:44 AM]
Fourth Season Premiere of "River Monsters" Is Most-Watched Season Debut in Animal Planet History
Animal Planet spins the numbers for Sunday, April 1.

[via press release from Animal Planet]

FOURTH SEASON PREMIERE OF "RIVER MONSTERS" IS MOST-WATCHED SEASON DEBUT IN ANIMAL PLANET HISTORY

-1.8 Million Viewers Were Hooked on Season Premiere Episode with 10.5 Million Viewers Tuning in During the All-day RIVER MONSTERS Marathon -

(New York, April 3, 2012) -- Fish on, indeed! Animal Planet snared its biggest fish yet with the season four premiere of RIVER MONSTERS, which aired Sunday with record highs. The episode, "American Killers," delivered 1.8M P2+ viewers (1.77M), making it the most-watched season debut in Animal Planet history. RIVERS MONSTERS also saw its biggest audience yet among P25-54 with season-four debut.

The network's best-performing series RIVER MONSTERS swam its fourth lap with Olympic strength as host, biologist and extreme angler Jeremy Wade returned to explore legendary, monster fish that lurk right in our backyards with an all-day marathon that brought in more than 10.5M unique viewers. The season debut, "American Killers," is the network's second most-watched regularly airing telecast of all time among P25-54 and saw significant delivery increases among all key demos versus last season's debut, including 1,292K HH (+13%); 976K P25-54 (+27%); 578K M25-54 (+38%); and W25-54 398K (+14%).

The debut helped Animal Planet rank among the top three ad-supported cable networks among M25-54 in the 9-11 PM time slot (1.1 rating). The 11 PM encore of "American Killers" also set records, delivering more than 1.3M viewers, which is a new high for the series in late night.

Now in its fourth season, RIVER MONSTERS premieres with new episodes every Sunday at 10 PM for the next nine weeks. Extreme angler Jeremy Wade takes viewers on new adventures as he unravels freshwater fish tales of giant killers, where sometimes fact really is stranger than fiction! Animal Planet's best-performing series in network history is back and follows Wade on a worldwide search for harrowing stories of bloodthirsty fish. A fearless explorer, he aims to hook the finned culprits that are thought to attack humans and reveal how much truth lies in the legends.

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





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· RIVER MONSTERS (ANIMAL PLANET)





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