Animal Witness: The Michael Vick Case Delivers Best Series Debut in Animal Planet History
-- Network’s New Sunday Programs Score Ratings Gold Despite Olympic-Sized Competition --
August 26, 2008
(Silver Spring, Md.) Up against behemoth competition of NBC’s closing ceremonies of the Olympics, the launch of new series ANIMAL WITNESS, which premiered with a special episode THE MICHAEL VICK CASE, delivered Animal Planet’s highest series debut ever with 808,000 homes (0.9 household rating) and 616,000 P25-54 viewers. Over 1.1 million P2+ viewers tuned into the series premiere.
The premiere ranked as the highest-rated Animal Planet telecast among P25-54 (0.6 rating) since January 2007 when the network aired the Steve Irwin specials OCEAN’S DEADLIEST and CRIKEY! WHAT AN ADVENTURE. In addition, the ANIMAL WITNESS premiere was the network’s top telecast in the past year among W25-54 with a 0.6 rating and garnered a 0.5 among M25-54.The successful debut of ANIMAL WITNESS comes on the heels of the strong summer launch of new series UNTAMED & UNCUT on Sundays. Since its premiere in June, UNTAMED & UNCUT has averaged a 0.7 household rating and 0.4 P25-54 rating.“Animal Planet is grabbing new viewers with powerfully compelling stories and the Michael Vick case and the issue of dog fighting is obviously a prime example,” noted Marjorie Kaplan, president and general manager of Animal Planet Media. “With shows like ANIMAL WITNESS and UNTAMED AND UNCUT, the network is building a great Sunday night.”Animal Planet kicked off its brand new series ANIMAL WITNESS with THE MICHAEL VICK CASE, a one-hour special that tells the full, wrenching story of the fallen NFL star through an investigative report gives an in-depth report, the law enforcement officers who broke the case and the dogs who were traumatized in the horrific dog fighting scenario and their miraculous recovery. The special exposes the brutal sport of dog fighting and spotlights the incredible rehabilitation of Vick’s dogs under the care of some very dedicated dog lovers. UNTAMED AND UNCUT is a new summer series that brings viewers the most incredible animal encounters ever caught on tape using ground-breaking CGI to break down these wild flashpoints!
ANIMAL WITNESS is a production of Towers Productions for Animal Planet. Jonathan Towers is the executive producer for Towers, and Dawn Sinsel is the executive producer for Animal Planet. UNTAMED AND UNCUT is a production of Cheri Sundae Productions. Cheri Brownlee is the executive producer for Cheri Sundae, and Erin Wanner is the executive producer 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 93 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.