Cable Ratings: ‘River Monsters' Brings Record Haul To Animal Planet

The second season premiere of River
Monsters
on Animal Planet was the network's best season premiere ever among
the key demos. 2009's surprise hit drew 1.7 million total viewers for the
episode "Death Ray," including 971,000 P18-49 and 879,000 P25-54. The 25-54
demo numbers are the second best for any regular Animal Planet series, trailing
only the April2009 episode of River Monsters "Killer Catfish."

"Clearly, audiences have responded to the mysteries of the
deep that Jeremy takes them on in River Monsters," said Marjorie Kaplan,
president and general manager of Animal Planet Media in a statement.  "River Monsters isn't simply a fishing
show... it's a murder mystery with intriguing characters and a storyline with
multiple twists and turns.  And fans have been patient since it's been
nearly a year since we've had fresh new monsters to find."

River Monsters stars angler Jeremy Wade traveling the
world finding strange and unusual freshwater creatures. The premiere season in
early 2009 became Animal Planet's breakout hit of the year, toppling ratings
records.