Animal Planet Aligns with Laguna Beach Producer

BEVERLY HILLS, July 11: Animal Planet is teaming with Go
Go Luckey Entertainment, the production house behind MTV’s Laguna Beach, for two new series: Creature, premiering in the fall, and Jockeys, set to launch in January 2009.

Announcing the deal at the Television Critics Association
press tour, Marjorie
Kaplan, the president and general manager of Animal Planet Media, noted: "A
key premise of our rebrand is that Animal Planet has the potential for enormous
creative range. Series like Escape To Chimp Eden, Groomer Has It and Untamed
and Uncut have begun to push the creative
boundaries, and with our partnership with Go Go Luckey, masters of fresh,
vibrant storytelling, we up the ante even further. Jockeys and Creature both have the opportunity to be fan staples for the network."

"We've been huge fans of Animal Planet for a long
time and are very excited by the new trails they're blazing at the
network," said Gary Auerbach, founding partner of Go Go Luckey.
"We're very excited for the opportunity to be a part of this new movement
and be able to bring our unique, edgy cinematic brand of storytelling into
their mix."

Jockeys goes behind
the scenes of the world of horseracing, while Creature presents first-person encounters with bizarre
animals.

—By Mansha Daswani