While still big ratings, Duck Dynasty Premiere down 26%

[dbackjon]

http://insidetv.ew.com/2014/01/16/duck-dynasty-ratings-controversey/

Maybe there is such a thing as bad publicity?

Though Duck Dynasty was expected by some to return to its biggest ratings yet after its huge controversy last month, the Louisiana-based reality show returned to lower viewership than its previous two premieres.

Wednesday night’s Duck Dynasty season 5 premiere had 8.5 million viewers. That’s huge for a cable reality show, but down 28 percent from its record-setting fourth season debut in August (11.8 million). It’s also slightly down from the show’s third season premiere in February last year (8.6 million). A&E notes the number up slightly from the fourth season finale on Oct. 23 (though obviously it’s standard to compare premieres to premieres).

[CoffeeCat]

1. I'm surprised by this....

You know how those religious nutjob bigots LOVE when their views are featured on a television show. I assumed that every last one of them would tune in to show Pill that he is not alone in his stupidity and ignorance. YAY, hatred!

Plus Duck Dynasty doubled down on their anti-homosexual hate since last season.

I thought the ratings would have at least stayed the same.

Very good news to hear that ratings were down nearly 30 percent.

I have to watch a few FB "friends" expressing such glee with their posts, "YAY! Duck Dynasty premier tonight!"

This crowd loves to support bigotry. They're also the crowd that eats at Chick-Fil-A, because they love to eat greasy, artery-clogging chicken parts as a Godly way to celebrate their homophobia and support other nimrods who feel the same. YAY!

[underpants]

2. Maybe the audience was grocery shopping for their MLK parties this weekend

[Thirties Child]

3. Most likely they stopped watching because they learned it was fake

And seeing the photos of them before the beards.

[Gothmog]

4. Bad press can make a diffence

This ratings drop is disproving the saying that there is no such thing as bad press.

[nomorenomore08]

5. I don't think a lot of folks were terribly surprised by Robertson's comments - stupid people tend to

say stupid things. I was appalled by the blatant homophobia and racism obviously, but I wasn't really surprised.

I think this may be more a function of the fact that the public's interest in reality shows - and really, TV shows period nowadays - tends to be fairly short-lived.