Joining NASA’s New Horizon’s historic mission to the edge of the solar system, Discovery’s original special PLUTO: FIRST ENCOUNTER drew an average audience of 319,100 viewers this past Wednesday (July 15) to become the day’s most-watched specialty broadcast, early overnight data from Numeris (BBM Canada) confirms. Anchored by DAILY PLANET co-host Dan Riskin from Mission Central in Maryland, the one-hour special was also the #1 specialty program of the day among Adults 25-54 (152,700) and bested MISSION PLUTO on National Geographic Channel (July 14) by 151% (127,200, 2+). In all, more than 730,000 Canadians watched some part of PLUTO: FIRST ENCOUNTER.

A special encore of PLUTO: FIRST ENCOUNTER airs this Sunday, July 19 at 6 p.m. ET/3 p.m. PT on Discovery.

**Media Note** Photography for PLUTO: FIRST ENCOUNTER available online at BellMediaPR.ca.

Produced by Discovery Canada’s in-house production company Exploration Production Inc. (EPI), PLUTO: FIRST ENCOUNTER is executive produced by Kelly McKeown. Producer and Director is Shelley Ayres, Senior Producer is Cindy Bahadur, and Supervising Producer is Agatha Rachpaul. This latest special follows the 2014 success of EPI’s LANDING ON A COMET: ROSETTA MISSION, which attracted 381,000 viewers (final data), making it the #1 specialty program in its timeslot.

Following its world premiere in Canada on Wednesday night, PLUTO: FIRST ENCOUNTER aired around the world later that day on Discovery International networks, including Eastern, Central, and Western Europe, the U.K., Scandinavia, the Middle-East and Africa, China, India, South and Central Asia, Australia, South America, and the U.S.

SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS:

Discovery Canada on Facebook: facebook.com/discoverycanada

Discovery Canada on Twitter: @DiscoveryCanada

Dr. Dan Riskin on Twitter: @riskindan

New Horizons Pluto Mission on Twitter: @NewHorizons2015

Pluto Hashtag: #PlutoFlyBy

Source: Numeris (BBM Canada)