Cable Ratings: Animal Planet's ‘River Monsters' A Ratings Monster

The second episode of Animal Planet's River Monsters delivered a 39% boost in total viewers (1.866 million) compared to the series premiere last week (1.355 million), and reached 966,000 P25-54 Sunday night. Those numbers make it the best performing regularly scheduled primetime telecast in network history, topping last week's premiere.

"Two spectacular river adventures with Jeremy Wade and two amazing Sunday nights for Animal Planet," says Marjorie Kaplan, president and general manager of Animal Planet Media, in a statement. "River Monsters has struck a nerve with our viewers and between man-eating piranha and killer catfish, the series is the ultimate in frightening and breathtaking storytelling. We have a huge success on our hands -- or our fins."

River Monsters has five more new episodes scheduled over the next five Sunday nights, though a second season is almost assured, given the ratings success.