Animal Planet's RIVER MONSTERS Season Finale Delivers 2.2M Viewers

The season finale of Animal Planet's best-performing series ever, RIVER MONSTERS, netted a series high 2.2 million P2+ viewers on Monday night. The Memorial Day, two-hour finale showcased extreme angler and biologist Jeremy Wade unlocking some of the mysteries of the Loch Ness Monster and capping off the network's second annual Monster Week. "Legend of Loch Ness" is the most-watched River Monsters episode across all demos, including HH (1.4M); P18-49 (1.3M); P25-54 (1.2M); M18-49 (750K); M25-54 (711K); P18-34 (621K); W18-49 (505K); and W25-54 (482K). The season five finale helped Animal Planet rank among the top two ad-supported cable networks of the night among M18-49, excluding sports. Animal Planet has officially greenlit a sixth season to debut in 2014.

The River Monsters season finale helped Animal Planet achieve its best Monday night performance in network history among P2+ (1.8M); HH (1.1M); P18-49 (999K); P25-54 (966K); M18-49 (606K); M25-54 (586K); W18-49 (393K); and W25-54 (381K).

RIVER MONSTERS achieved its most-watched season ever in 2013 across key demos, with season five outpacing season four with P2+ (+19%, 1.8M vs. 1.5M); HH (+7%, 1.2M vs. 1.1M); P18-49 (+19%, 943K vs. 795K); P25-54 (+6%, 885K vs. 836K); M18-49 (+23%, 584K vs. 474K); M25-54 (+7%, 533K vs. 500K); P18-34 (+20%, 462K vs. 386K); W25-54 (+5%, 352K vs. 336K); and W18-49 (+12%, 359K vs. 321K). River Monsters remains Animal Planet's top performing series ever, delivering 1.8M P2+ viewers across its season five episodes.

"For five fascinating seasons, Jeremy Wade has taken us on extraordinary adventures to find glorious creatures that still lurk in the hidden corners of this planet," said Marjorie Kaplan, president and general manager of Animal Planet. "Now, just when you might think he had uncovered every mystery and found every monster, we're thrilled to announce a whole new season of freshwater adventures."

RIVER MONSTERS takes viewers along with extreme angler and biologist Jeremy Wade as he unravels freshwater fish tales of giant killers, where sometimes fact really is stranger than fiction! And this season, Animal Planet's best-performing series in network history followed Wade on a worldwide search for harrowing stories of bloodthirsty fish. A fearless explorer, he aims to hook the finned culprits that are thought to attack humans and reveal how much truth lies in the legends. This season took him inside the jungles of Nicaragua, the fjords of Norway and even the nuclear wasteland of Chernobyl.

RIVER MONSTERS is co-production of Icon Films and Animal Planet. For Icon Films, Harry and Laura Marshall are the executive producers. For Animal Planet, Lisa Lucas is the executive producer with production assistance from Patrick Keegan and Jamie Linn. River Monsters was created and developed by Animal Planet's Charlie Foley.

Animal Planet Media (APM), a multi-media business unit of Discovery Communications, is the world's only entertainment brand that immerses viewers in the full range of life in the animal kingdom with rich, deep content via multiple platforms and offers animal lovers and pet owners access to a centralized online, television and mobile community for immersive, engaging, high-quality entertainment, information and enrichment. APM consists of the Animal Planet television network, available in more than 96 million homes in the US; online assets www.animalplanet.com, the ultimate online destination for all things animal; the 24/7 broadband channel, Animal Planet Beyond; Petfinder.com, the #1 pet-related Web property globally that facilitates pet adoption; and other media platforms including a robust Video-on-Demand (VOD) service; mobile content; and merchandising extensions.