POWERED BY "RIVER MONSTERS," DEBUT NIGHT OF ANIMAL PLANET'S MONSTER WEEK IS NUMBER ONE FOR MEN

- Animal Planet is #1 Cable Network For Men; RIVER MONSTERS is #1 Cable Telecast For Sunday, May 18 -

- Second Night of Monstrous Week Achieved Network's Best Monday-night Performance Since Last Year's MONSTER WEEK -

(May 20, 2014, Silver Spring, Md.) - Animal Planet's third-annual Monster Week kicked off to a great start on Sunday, May 18. The first night of the nine-day programming stunt helped Animal Planet rank as the #1 ad-supported cable net in prime among M25-54 (483K) and M18-49 (450K) and the #3 and #4 ad-supported cable net in prime among P25-54 (736K) and P2+ viewers (1.4M), respectively, excluding sports.

In addition, the night helped Animal Planet achieve one of its top-five Sunday-night performances of all time among M25-54 (#4) and M18-49 (#5).

This success was driven by Animal Planet's best-ever-performing series RIVER MONSTERS, with the premiere of "Bone Crusher" drawing in a whopping 599K M18-49, ranking as the #1 ad-supported cable telecast of the night. The episode, which pulled in 1.7M P2+ viewers, places as the series' second-most-watched episode ever among M25-54 (621K).

Monday, May 19 - the second night of MONSTER WEEK - gave Animal Planet its best Monday-night performance since last year's MONSTER WEEK with P18-49 (444K) and P25-54 (421K). This was championed by the 9 PM premiere of a monster-sized RIVER MONSTERS episode, "Amazon Apocalypse," which drew in 792K P2+viewers. The network placed among the top-10 ad-supported cable networks for the night based on P18-49 (#9) and P25-54 (#10) deliveries.

Animal Planet's MONSTER WEEK (May 18-26) needs nine days to showcase the grotesque and dangerous beasts that sneak in the water and stalk on land. All-new man-eating and super-sized specials accompany nightly RIVER MONSTERS episodes, followed by the RIVER MONSTERS season finale, "Body Snatcher, which premieres Monday, May 26, at 9 PM ET/PT. Catch Animal Planet's first two-hour, feature-length b-movie, BLOOD LAKE: ATTACK OF THE KILLER LAMPREYS, starring Shannen Doherty, Christopher Lloyd and Jason Brooks, Sunday, May 25, at 9 PM ET/PT.

Animal Planet, 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. Animal Planet 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; Animal Planet L!VE, the go-to digital destination for round-the-clock, unfiltered access to the animal kingdom; and other media platforms including a robust Video-on-Demand (VOD) service, and merchandising extensions.