Discovery Channel's Land of the Mammoth premiere Sunday posted a 3.9
rating, just about one-half the number of last year's blockbuster, Raising
the Mammoth.
Land of the Mammoth delivered 5.1 million viewers and it was Discovery's
seventh-highest-rated show ever, according to Nielsen Media Research data
supplied Tuesday by Discovery.
Last year's Emmy Award-winning Raising the Mammoth premiere made cable
history when its initial airing did a 7.8 rating, which translated to 10.1
million viewers. The special's performance was second only to Discovery's
Walking with Dinosaurs, which garnered an 8.0 rating and 10.7 million
viewers.
Land of the Mammoth was the top-rated show on basic cable Sunday night.
The special aired three times that night, and 18.3 million people saw some part
of those three telecasts, according to Discovery.
Land of the Mammoth is the continuation of Raising the Mammoth,
the story of the excavation and airlift of a permafrost block that contained the
remains of a woolly mammoth that died more than 20,000 years ago.
Land of the Mammoth chronicled two expeditions to northern Siberia's
remote Taymyr Peninsula, which were undertaken to collect animal remains from
the Pleistocene era.
