'Puppy Bowl IX' Surged During Superdome Power Outage

Animal Planet's cuteness display drew best-ever 12.4M unique P2+ viewers over 12-hour marathon

By MCN Staff -- Broadcasting & Cable, 2/5/2013 4:19:58 PM

Animal Planet said the ninth rendition of its Super Bowl counter-programming gambit -- Puppy Bowl -- recorded an event-record 12.4 million unique viewers ages 2 and up over 12 hours of airing.

It also enjoyed an audience surge during the 34 minutes when the football game was halted due to a partial blackout at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans. The Discovery-owned network said that during a 9-minute slice of time several minutes into the Super Bowl stoppage (8:51-9 p.m. ET), Puppy Bowl IX counted 1.1 million viewers P2+, a gain of 54% from the prior Puppy Bowl IX segment. (For an account of how the Puppy Bowl taping was disrupted by Hurricane Sandy, please see the Through The Wire column from Jan. 14, subscription required.)

During Puppy Bowl IX's premiere telecast from 3-5 p.m. (ET/PT), it brought in more than 2.6M P2+ viewers, an increase of 64% over year-ago levels. It posted gains across major demos, delivering 1.8 HH (+60%), 1.2M P18-49 (+94%) and 1M P25-54 (+60%), the network said in a release.

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