Nickelodeon's Avatar: The Last Airbender Hits All-Time Series High

* Reuters is not responsible for the content in this press release.

Tue Jul 22, 2008 4:27pm EDT

Season Three Finale, Sozin's Comet, Earns Number-One Spot On TV With Kids And
Tweens

Full Week Of New Avatar Episodes Reach 19 Million Total Viewers

NEW YORK, July 22 /PRNewswire/ -- Nickelodeon's Avatar: The Last Airbender
ended its third season with a "b-Aang," scoring the series' highest ratings
ever, and earning the number-one spot on broadcast and basic cable television
for the week with kids and tweens.  The two-hour season-three finale, Sozin's
Comet (Sat., July 19, 8 p.m. ET/PT), wrapped up a week of new, half-hour
Avatar episodes (Mon-Tues., Thurs.-Fri., 8 p.m. ET/PT), including a one-hour
TV movie mid-week, Avatar: Boiling Rock (Wed. July 16, 8 p.m. ET/PT).

Ratings highlights for Nick's Avatar week include:
-- The season-three finale, Avatar: Sozin's Comet, was the number-one telecast
on broadcast and basic cable television for the week of 7/14/08-7/22/08,
averaging 5.6 million total viewers, up +195% over last year's like time
period.*
-- Sozin's Comet earned the highest Avatar ratings ever with kids 6-11 and
tweens, and triple-digit increases in all kid and tween demos. It averaged an
8.9/1.9 million K6-11 (up +123% over last year's same time period), and a
9.2/2.0 million T9-14 (up +229%).
-- All of the week's new Avatar episodes, including the Saturday finale,
reached 19.0 million total viewers combined.**
-- The Wed., July 16, episode, Avatar: Boiling Rock (8 p.m. ET/PT), drew 4.0
million total viewers and averaged a 6.9/1.4 million K6-11 (up +86% over last
year), and a 7.1/1.5 million viewers T9-14 (up +122%).  
-- On average, the week-long Avatar premieres earned a 7.6/1.7 million T9-14
(up +130% over the same week in 2007); a 7.3/1.5 million K6-11 (up +83%); and
4.6 million total viewers.*
-- The new Avatar online Game of the Week on http://www.nick.com, "Rise of the
Phoenix King", generated almost 815,000 game plays (7/17-7/20/08) and in just
three days, became the number-two online game for the week.**** 
-- During the week of premiere episodes, Avatar became the number-one message
board on Nick.com.  

In Sozin's Comet, Aang faces an epic battle against the Firelord, coming to
terms with his destiny.  Launched in February 2005, the epic story of Avatar:
The Last Airbender follows the journey of Aang, a boy torn between fulfilling
his fate as the long-awaited Avatar and just wanting to be a regular kid.  

The animated series has inspired the 2010 live-action epic adventure, M. Night
Shyamalan's "The Last Airbender", from Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon
Movies.  Avatar television series creators, Michael DiMartino and Bryan
Konietzko, will serve as executive producers.

Nickelodeon, now in its 29th year, is the number-one entertainment brand for
kids. It has built a diverse, global business by putting kids first in
everything it does. The company includes television programming and production
in the United States and around the world, plus consumer products, online,
recreation, books, magazines and feature films. Nickelodeon's U.S. television
network is seen in more than 96 million households and has been the
number-one-rated basic cable network for 14 consecutive years. Nickelodeon and
all related titles, characters and logos are trademarks of Viacom Inc. (NYSE:
VIA, VIA.B).


Sources:* NMR, 7/19/08 and 7/14-7/22/08; ** NMR NPower, P2+ reach,
7/14-7/20/08; *** NMR, 7/16/08; and **** Omniture SiteCatalyst, 7/14-7/20/08)

SOURCE  Nickelodeon

Joanna Roses, +1-212-846-7326, Thamar Romero, +1-212-846-7491
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