'Whale Wars' Harpoons Viewers In Second Outing

The second episode of Animal Planet’s Whale Wars saw ratings growth from its premiere week, delivering Animal Planet’s best Friday primetime delivery in 10 years.

Friday’s episode drew more than 1.1 million viewers, up from 957K last week and a 0.9 household rating with 812K homes, up from a 0.8/724K last week. There was also double digit viewership growth among P25-54, M25-54 and W25-54 from last week.

Animal Planet has bet big on Whale Wars. In addition to an extensive election week ad buy, the network gave a green light to a second season of the series before the first episode even aired. Camera crews are set to follow the crew of the Steve Irwin during this year’s whaling season, as they seek to prevent Japanese whaling ships from harming any whales.