Heroic and Epic Adventures of Avatar: The Last Airbender to Continue with Twenty New Episodes to Premiere on Nickelodeon Beginning In 2007

Heroic and Epic Adventures of Avatar: The Last Airbender to Continue with Twenty New Episodes to Premiere on Nickelodeon Beginning In 2007

Third Season Delivers the Avatar to His Fate When He Faces the Evil Fire Lord and Fights to Restore Peace to War-Torn World

LOS ANGELES, June 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Nickelodeon's hit animated comedy series, Avatar: The Last Airbender, has been greenlit for 20 additional episodes to premiere in 2007, it was announced today by Marjorie Cohn, Executive Vice President, Development and Original Programming, Nickelodeon. Created and executive produced by Michael DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, the new pick-up order will bring the total number of episodes for the series to sixty, for a third season.

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20060620/NYTU063-d )

"Avatar continues to be one of our top shows with kid and tween audiences who keep tuning in for the layered storylines and incredible, animated martial arts," said Cohn. "In season three, Aang will confront his biggest enemy yet along with Katara and Sokka, and meet his destiny by facing the evil Fire Lord at last."

"When we came up with the original concept for the show, we intended Aang's first journey to culminate by facing the Fire Lord in the third season," said creator Bryan Konietzko. "We're excited that we will be able to complete that original vision for the series and allow Aang to meet his fate," added Michael DiMartino.

Launched in February 2005, Avatar is currently in its second season and is the number one animated series on all of TV among boys 9-14. The series posted double digit year-to-year gains in May and averaged a 5.2 tween 9-14 rating/1.1 million viewers in its Friday night time period, up +23% in rating and +26% in impressions over last year. Among boys 9-14 the show posted even bigger year-to-year growth, up +25% with a 6.8 boy 9-14 rating. (Nielsen Media Research: May 2006)

Next up for the series is The Fury of Aang, an hour-long animated movie premiering on Nickelodeon Friday, July 14 at 8-9 PM (ET/PT). The kids travel to a spirit library in the middle of the desert, where Sokka hopes to discover powerful secrets to use against the Fire Nation and something is taken from Aang that causes the Avatar to become angrier than ever before.

The epic story of Avatar: The Last Airbender follows the journey of Aang (Zach Tyler Eisen), a 12-year-old boy torn between fulfilling his fate as the long-awaited Avatar and just wanting to be a regular kid. Aang is called upon to lead the fight against the vicious Fire Nation to restore balance in his war-torn world. Aided by a protective teenage Waterbender named Katara (Mae Whitman) and her bull-headed warrior brother Sokka (Jack DeSena), Aang proceeds on a perilous journey to save the world while sometimes shaking off his heavy responsibilities so that he can enjoy being a kid.

Avatar: The Last Airbender was created by Michael DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko who also serve as executive producers. Award-winning filmmaker, Michael DiMartino has been a director at Film Roman for six years, working on the prime-time animated series King of the Hill, Family Guy and Mission Hill. During his tenure there, DiMartino animated and directed the short animated film Atomic Love, which has gone on to screen at festivals across the country including Sundance and the Los Angeles Film Festival. It also recently aired as part of the Nicktoons Film Festival on the Nicktoons Network.

Bryan Konietzko began his career in animation as a character designer at Film Roman for Fox's prime-time series, Family Guy. He soon moved to the post of assistant director for two more Film Roman shows, Mission Hill and King of the Hill, working beside animation director Michael DiMartino. Konietzko then became a storyboard artist and later an art director for the Nickelodeon animated series Invader Zim.

Avatar: The Last Airbender is produced at the Nicktoons Studios in Burbank, California.

Nickelodeon, in its 27th 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 90 million households and has been the number-one-rated basic cable network for more than ten consecutive years. Nickelodeon and all related titles, characters and logos are trademarks of Viacom Inc. (NYSE:VIA)(NYSE:VIA.B).

Photo: NewsCom: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20060620/NYTU063-d
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PRN Photo Desk, photodesk@prnewswire.com
Source: Nickelodeon

CONTACT: Press: Nicole Parker, +1-818-736-3613, nicole.parker@nick.com,
Photo: Michelle Hernandez, +1-212-258-7722, michelle.hernandez@nick.com, both
of Nickelodeon

Web site: http://www.nick.com/

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