HOOK, LINE AND SINKER! ANIMAL PLANET'S "RIVER MONSTERS" NABS ITS BIGGEST CATCH YET

-- Season Four Reigns as Top Performing in Network History --

(New York, May 31, 2012) - Animal Planet's RIVER MONSTERS, featuring biologist and extreme angler Jeremy Wade, is top of the food chain as the network's best-performing series ever among all key demos. The series concluded its fourth season, delivering 1.5 million P2+ viewers across its premiere episodes. The season opener, "American Killers," was the most-watched debut in Animal Planet's history, delivering nearly 1.8 million P2+ viewers.

Season four of RIVER MONSTERS outpaced season three performance in several key demos, including HH +3% (1.1M vs. 1.07M), P25-54 +9% (836K vs. 767K), M25-54 +6% (500K vs. 473K) and W25-54 +14% (336K vs. 294K). RIVER MONSTERS helped Animal Planet rank third among all ad-supported cable networks in the Sunday 10 PM timeslot based on delivery among M25-54 (excluding movies and sports). Also, the Memorial Day RIVER MONSTERS season finale and MERMAIDS: THE BODY FOUND encore helped Animal Planet achieve its best Monday night performance in network history among P25-54 (778K), P18-49 (711K) and M25-54 (410K).

Every week, Wade takes viewers on new adventures as he unravels freshwater fish tales of giant killers, where sometimes fact really is stranger than fiction! RIVER MONSTERS follows Wade on a worldwide search for harrowing stories of bloodthirsty fish. A fearless explorer, he aims to hook the finned culprits, which are thought to attack humans, and reveals 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.