Animal Planet's WHALE WARS Ends Maiden Voyage as the Network's Most Watched Series Ever

- Season Finale Delivers More Than 1 Million Viewers & Ranks in Top Ten on Cable -

SILVER SPRING, Md., Dec. 23 -- Animal Planet's WHALE WARS stormed audiences in its maiden season earning the best performance of any series in the network's history among Adults 25-54 (529,000 viewers) and Men 25-54 (309,000 viewers). The series averaged a 0.7 household rating for the season, a 75% increase over the year-ago timeslot average and delivered an average of nearly a million viewers (946,000 P2+) across its seven premieres. Also, WHALE WARS premieres scored triple-digit ratings gains compared to Animal Planet's year-ago 4Q07 primetime and timeslot averages (P25-54: 0.5 +150%, M25-54: 0.6 +200%, W25-54: 0.4 +100%, P18-49: 0.5 +150%).

Last Friday's season finale captured more than 1 million viewers (1.011M P2+) and helped Animal Planet tie for ninth place among all ad supported cable networks in the 9 PM hour among both Adults 25-54 (0.6 AA%) and Men 25-54 (0.7 AA%). The season closer docked with a 0.8 household rating tying with the season premiere.

"WHALE WARS is the latest example of Animal Planets new brand positioning which is bringing the network a new and larger audience," noted Marjorie Kaplan, president and general manager of Animal Planet Media.

WHALE WARS is an environmental adventure series following the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, an organization founded by former Greenpeace member Paul Watson, who uses unconventional and radical methods to eradicate alleged illegal whaling operations. Spotlighting the controversial whaling trade and the tactics that Sea Shepherd and its staff and volunteers use to cripple it, the series documents the group's 2007-2008 three-month sojourn across the icy Antarctic waters at the far end of the globe. WHALE WARS draws attention to this global conservation issue that has caused friction between several nations over the practice of whaling in oceanic territories.

WHALE WARS is a production of RIVR Media for Animal Planet. Rob Lundgren, Lori Stryer and Liz Bronstein are the executive producers for RIVR Media, and Jason Carey is the executive producer at Animal Planet. Charlie Foley is the development executive for Animal Planet.

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 95 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.