ANIMAL PLANET TRIGGERS ADDITIONAL EPISODES OF CONFESSIONS: ANIMAL HOARDING TO AIR FIRST QUARTER 2011
Network Orders 10 Additional Episodes hat Explore the Human Impact and Animal Toll of Animal Hoarding
August 6, 2010
(Beverly Hills, Ca.) - After just three weeks of premieres of CONFESSIONS: ANIMAL HOARDING, Animal Planet orders an additional 10 episodes to air during the first quarter of 2011. The series exceeded Animal Planet's year-ago prime levels by 48 percent among W25-54 in the first two premieres that aired this past July.
Animal hoarding is a serious and growing problem affecting every community in America, with more than 3,500 cases reported annually, impacting 250,000 pets each year. In many cases, it goes unrecognized until it becomes a crime. CONFESSIONS: ANIMAL HOARDING takes an honest and intense look at this condition and for the first time ever shows animal hoarding as a complex human condition that affects both the people and the animals involved.
"Clearly, CONFESSIONS: ANIMAL HOARDING hit a nerve with our viewers," says Marjorie Kaplan, president and general manager of Animal Planet. "These are life-and-death, deeply moving stories of humans and animals driven by profound need. With this series, we are hoping to build awareness that hoarding is a serious psychological condition - one for which there is hope and treatment for people and animals involved."
Although animal hoarding is not yet formally recognized as a distinct psychological disorder in the psychiatric diagnostic manual with a set course of treatment, the mental health community is trying to better understand and approach animal hoarding through a human lens. Animal Planet's series is providing a forum where experts in psychology, veterinary health and leading organizations such as the Humane Society of the United States can address and unlock the problem on a national level.
CONFESSIONS: ANIMAL HOARDING delves into the daily lives as well as the hearts and minds of the people afflicted by this disorder. It also provides a voice for family and friends who are determined to prevent their loved ones from spinning further out of control. In the series, cameras enter the homes of men and women, young and old and from all walks of life, discovering what it's like for animals and people to live in the toxic conditions that result from an unbelievably large menagerie of animals. And, Animal Planet gets to the heart of the matter, exploring the reasons why these individuals turned to hoarding and how their problems spun rapidly out of control.
CONFESSIONS: ANIMAL HOARDING is produced for Animal Planet by GRB Entertainment. Executive producers for GRB Entertainment are Gary R. Benz, Michael Branton and Dan Jackson, with Dan Partland as consulting producer. Executive producer for Animal Planet is Melinda Toporoff. Marc Etkind 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 96 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.