MTV's 'Skins' Debuts with a 3.4 Rating (P12-34) and 3.26 Million Total Viewers

MTV's 'Skins' Debuts with a 3.4 Rating (P12-34) and 3.26 Million Total Viewers

NEWEST SCRIPTED SERIES DRAWS NETWORK'S LARGEST P12-34 AUDIENCE FOR A SERIES LAUNCH

"SKINS" GARNERS HIGHER RATING THAN DEBUTS OF COMPETITIVE SCRIPTED SHOWS ACROSS CABLE AND NETWORK TELEVISION

NEW YORK, Jan. 18, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- MTV, a division of Viacom Inc. (NYSE: VIA and VIA.B), announced today that its ground-breaking series "Skins" debuted with a 3.4 P12-34 rating and drew the most P12-34 viewers for a show launch in the network's history. MTV's newest scripted series drew 3.26 million total viewers and 2.7 million viewers in its core demo. The show premiered at 10pm on Monday, January 17.

"Skins" bowed to a higher P12-34 rating than the launches of competitive scripted shows across both cable and network television, including ABC Family's "Pretty Little Liars" (2.2 rating - 6/8/10) and "The Secret Life of the American Teenager" (2.3 rating - 07/01/08), as well as CW's "Gossip Girl" (2.3 rating --- 09/17/07), "90210" (2.7 rating - 9/2/08) and "Vampire Diaries" (2.4 rating - 09/1/09).

The series is a key priority in MTV's ongoing scripted programming push that started with last year's coming-of-age comedy "The Hard Times of RJ Berger," returning this Spring, and will continue with the Summer premiere of "Teen Wolf."

Online, the premiere of "Skins" was Twitter's #2 worldwide trending topic and #3 in the U.S. (#mtvskins). The series attracted over 50,000 Facebook fans prior to the series premiere on-air, growing by 230% in the week leading up to its debut.

MTV closed out 2010 with 15% ratings growth among the network's targeted P12-34 audience, making it the largest year-over-year increase since 1999.

Source: The Nielsen Company. Live+SD cvg rtgs. Comparison among series debuts in regularly scheduled time periods only.

About MTV:

MTV is the world's premier youth entertainment brand. With a global reach of more than a half-billion households, MTV is the cultural home of the millennial generation, music fans and artists, and a pioneer in creating innovative programming for young people. MTV reflects and creates pop culture with its Emmy®, Grammy® and Peabody® award-winning content built around compelling storytelling, music discovery and activism across TV, online and mobile. MTV's sibling networks MTV2 and mtvU each deliver unparalleled customized content for young males, music fans and college students, and its online hub MTV.com is the leading destination for music, news and pop culture. MTV is part of MTV Networks, a unit of Viacom (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B), one of the world's leading creators of programming and content across all media platforms. For more information, go to www.mtvpress.com.

SOURCE MTV

MTV

CONTACT: Nathaniel Brown, +1-212-846-2812, nathaniel.brown@mtvstaff.com

Web Site: http://www.mtv.com

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