Animal Planet's Whale Wars stormed audiences on its second voyage delivering more than 1.1 million viewers (1.153M P2+), the network's best performing Friday primetime telecast in five years. The momentum for the series grew in its second week garnering a 0.9 household ratings (812,000 homes), an 80% increase compared to the Planet's year-ago November prime average (0.9 vs. 0.5), and +13% increase from the series November 7th debut (0.8 HH).
On its second outing, Whale Wars captured a 0.6 AA% among Persons 25-54, Men 25-54 and Women 25-54 scoring record 200% increases over the network's prime average last November. The series also saw double-digit ratings growth among those demos compared to the previous week's series premiere: +50% P25-54 (0.6 vs. 0.4), +50% W25-54 (0.6 vs. 0.4), and +20% M25-54 (0.6 vs. 0.5). In addition, Whale Wars helped deliver Animal Planet's best overall Friday night among P25-54 viewers (427,000) since June 2003.
Moreover, Whale Wars helped Animal Planet tie for 8th place among all ad-supported cable networks at 9 pm with a 0.6 rating W25-54, and tie for 9th with a 0.6 rating among P25-54.
"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 a new 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.
