or


[08/25/09 - 12:46 PM]
Animal Planet's "Whale Wars" Returns from High Seas with Record Viewership in Finale and in Second Season
Animal Planet spins the numbers for Friday, August 14.

[via press release from Animal Planet]

ANIMAL PLANET'S "WHALE WARS" RETURNS FROM HIGH SEAS WITH RECORD VIEWERSHIP IN FINALE AND IN SECOND SEASON

Friday Night's Finale Docks with 1.3 Million Viewers, Most-Watched Episode Ever -- Network Announces Greenlight of Third Season to Begin Filming Sea Shepherds Later this Fall

(New York, New York, August 25, 2009) - Animal Planet's WHALE WARS ended last Friday evening with the most-watched episode ever, a record 1.3M P2+ viewers tuning in to see the fate of the Sea Shepherd crew who, upon returning to port, were detained by Australian Federal Police.

The season finale also set viewership records among HH (877K), P25-54 (807K), W25-54 (375K), and M25-54 (432K), helping Animal Planet rank third among all cable networks in the 9 PM hour among P25-54 (excludes sports). WHALE WARS ranked among the top five cable programs last Friday night in terms of P25-54 delivery (excludes sports and movies).

The overall sophomore season of WHALE WARS also set new landmarks and is now Animal Planet's second-best performing series in network history, averaging 779K households and more than a million P2+ viewers (1.08M) across its second season. Premiere episodes of the new season have produced double-digit delivery gains compared to the inaugural season average across key demos (HH: +14%, P25-54: +18%, W25-54: +26%, M25-54 +12%, P2+: +14%).

Marjorie Kaplan, president and general manager of Animal Planet, also announced today that WHALE WARS would return for a third season next year, following the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society's next Antarctic whale defense campaign called Operation Waltzing Matilda. The Sea Shepherds are expected to leave on the campaign at year's end with the series anticipated to return as a lynchpin for the channel's 2010 summer.

"It's been terrific to see the success of this groundbreaking series, and its growth creatively and with audiences from the first to the second season. I'm proud to be able to announce the third," added Kaplan. "WHALE WARS has really helped to transform the brand of the network and has anchored our Friday night. Now JOCKEYS rides in to continue the momentum and give our viewers a look inside another, very different world."

WHALE WARS follows Watson and the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society as they wage a life-and-death battle to find and stop Japanese ships from hunting whales in the name of research. For several years, Watson and his eclectic group of international staff and volunteers - labeled activists, heroes or eco-pirates -- have taken a hard-line approach to eradicate whaling, poaching, and shark-finning and other serious ocean conservation issues. WHALE WARS follows a masterful chess match at the far end of the globe as both Sea Shepherd and the whalers engage in an environmental showdown that could cost millions of dollars -- all while drawing global attention to the practice of whaling.

WHALE WARS is a production of Lizard Trading Company and RIVR Media for Animal Planet. Liz Bronstein is the executive producer for Lizard Trading Company, and Jason Carey is the executive producer for Animal Planet. Charlie Foley is vice president of development 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.





  [august 2009]  
S
M
T
W
T
F
S
      


· JOCKEYS (ANIMAL PLANET)
· WHALE WARS (ANIMAL PLANET)





most recent ratings | view all posts
[02/12/25 - 10:43 AM]
ESPN NBA Viewership Update: Luka Doncic's Lakers Debut Delivers 2.01 Million Viewers
The telecast peaked at 2.55 million viewers and won the day among people and males 18-34, 18-49 and 25-54.

[02/12/25 - 10:23 AM]
Puppy Bowl XXI Reaches 12.8 Million Viewers and Was #1 Non-Sports Cable Telecast on Sunday, February 9
Sunday's programming event became the highest-rated Puppy Bowl ever on Discovery, TBS and truTV and Animal Planet's highest-rated in four years.

[02/12/25 - 09:35 AM]
CBS "FBI" Line Up Wins Tuesday Night with #1 Show "FBI"
"FBI" was the #1 show of the night, beating the #2 show of the night by nearly +1 million viewers.

[02/11/25 - 01:15 PM]
FOX "Super Week" Kicks Off, Breaking Records with "The Floor" as Season's #1 Entertainment Series Telecast and New Survival Competition "Extracted" Off to a Wild Start
For six consecutive seasons, FOX has delivered the highest-rated unscripted entertainment series telecast.

[02/11/25 - 12:00 PM]
Netflix Top 10 Week of Feb. 3: "Kinda Pregnant" Delivers, "The Night Agent" Holds Strong in Top 10
Fans also basked in the Southern charm of Season 4 of "Sweet Magnolias," which debuted at No. 4 in English TV (4 million views), and flocked to the Australian limited series "Apple Cider Vinegar" (No. 5 in English TV, 3.8 million views).

[02/11/25 - 11:38 AM]
FOX Sports' Presentation of Super Bowl LIX Delivers Most-Watched Super Bowl of All-Time with 127.7 Million Viewers Across All Platforms
Philadelphia's big win in the bayou peaked at 137.7 million viewers in the second quarter (8:00 PM - 8:15 PM ET), per Nielsen Media Research.

[02/11/25 - 11:01 AM]
"The Day of the Jackal" Becomes Peacock's Most-Watched New Original Drama Series
Viewership of the series in its first 75 days has surpassed that of any other original drama series in the same timeframe.

[02/07/25 - 01:13 PM]
ABC Claims Top 5 Shows Among Adults 18-49 in Cross-Platform Broadcast Series Rankings
Driven by stellar streaming viewership on Hulu and Disney+, three ABC titles more than triple their seven-day linear averages, including "High Potential" (+297%), "Abbott Elementary" (+270%) and "Shifting Gears" (+242%).

[02/07/25 - 10:08 AM]
CBS Wins Thursday Night with Top 4 Programs of the Night, Up from Its Thursday Season Average
"Georgie & Mandy's First Marriage" (8:00-8:30 PM) was the #1 program of the night delivering 6.54 million viewers.

[02/07/25 - 09:10 AM]
CBS "Hollywood Squares" Is the Season's #1 New Unscripted Series Reaching Nearly 24 Million Unique Viewers
The show is televisions #1 new unscripted series this season averaging 5.40 million viewers in primetime alone.

[02/05/25 - 09:18 AM]
CBS "FBI" Line Up Wins Tuesday Night
"FBI" was the #1 show of the night with 5.83 million viewers, winning its hour by +1.33 million viewers.

[02/04/25 - 12:00 PM]
Netflix Top 10 Week of Jan. 27: "Back in Action" Pulls No Punches, "The Night Agent" Hits Its Mark in Top 10
Plus: the Noah Centineo-starring "The Recruit" remained a hit, with Season 2 arriving at No. 2 (5.9 million views) and Season 1 sitting at No. 8 (3.1 million views).

[02/04/25 - 08:48 AM]
"The Flip Off" Delivers HGTV's Highest-Rated Freshman Series Premiere Since September 2022
The series attracting 4.0 million total viewers across linear and streaming when it premiered on Wednesday, January 29, at 8 p.m. ET/PT.

[02/04/25 - 08:33 AM]
"The 67th Annual Grammy Awards" on CBS Nets 15.4 Million Viewers and Raises Nearly $9 Million
Over the course or the entire weekend, the Recording Academy and MusiCares raised over $24 million for charitable activities.

[02/03/25 - 09:33 AM]
ESPN's Excellent Start to 2025: January Marks Highest Monthly Viewership in a Decade
Combining all of ESPN's programming with sports programming on ABC, more minutes were watched by fans than any month since January of 2017 (96 months).