River Monsters Delivers for Animal Planet

NEW YORK: Animal Planet’s River Monsters, produced by Icon Films, notched up record viewership of more than a million households in its seven episodes, making it the best-performing series in network history.

The series delivered triple-digit gains among all key demos, compared to Animal Planet’s year-ago average. Animal Planet has now given the greenlight to a season season, which will head into production this summer. Slated for launch in spring 2010, the new season will explore more killer fish in freshwater locales across the globe.

On May 31, Animal Planet will run a nine-hour marathon of River Monsters, featuring all seven episodes, along with a never-before-seen two-hour special cut of "Killer Catfish." The series is hosted by expert angler Jeremy Wade.

“River Monsters was a ratings monster, and we’re excited to send Jeremy back into the murky depths to explore more stories,” said Marjorie Kaplan, the president and general manager of Animal Planet Media. “With over a millions viewers gripped to their seats every week, Animal Planet is delivering on our promise of break-through television.”