The ‘Ducks’ are back and thank God they are. That’s right – Duck Dynasty Season 5 has finally premiered and squirrel-brain-eating Phil, Willie, Jase, Jep, Uncle Si and the camouflage gear, as well as fidelity, faith, family, and the type of common decency sorely lacking in today’s culture are back in America’s living room.
However, the day after the premiere there were those who seemed a bit giddy with vindictive joy based on the viewership numbers that were being interpreted to mean that Duck Dynasty was being penalized by America for its unwavering refusal to submit to secular pressure.
Variety reported that the season 5 debut had a smaller audience than season 4 and that the “A&E juggernaut returned… less than a month after a firestorm of controversy engulfed the show…to strong but far from record-breaking ratings.”
Rick Kissell of Variety had this to say:
Duck Dynasty exploded when it kicked off its fourth season last August, with its 11.8 million total viewers the largest audience for a nonfiction series telecast in cable history. The show about a Louisiana family also set an A&E record as the biggest telecast in the network’s history in all key demos.
It went on to average 9.15 million same-night viewers for its summer episodes.
Kissell’s insinuation was that although 8.5 million viewers tuned in for the new season’s first show (that’s right, 8.5 million), Phil’s comments about homosexuality may have caused viewers to be turned off to the popular cable reality show.
Based on the gay news outlet Advocate.com, Variety wasn’t the only predictor of woe.
From the tone of an article entitled “Duck Dynasty Ratings Plummet: The A & E reality series saw its ratings fly south for the winter after the show’s season 5 premiere,” One would thing that it was “all over but the shouting,” and that Phil’s supposed homophobia had ushered in a Robertson family “plummet.”
Jase Peeples of the Advocate wrote this?
The reality series saw a significant drop in ratings after A&E aired the premiere episode of the show’s fifth season on January 15. Some 8.5 million viewers tuned in to follow the flock’s latest adventures – a 28 percent nosedive from the record 12 million who quacked for the show’s season 4 debut.
Apparently indulging in some wishful thinking, Peeples ended his bad-news-for-the-Ducks column by saying, “Duck season may have just kicked off on A&E, but if the new season’s ratings continue to slide, we could be witnessing the beginning of this dynasty’s end.”
One can only surmise that the liberal media was secretly hoping that Phil Robertson would be publicly humiliated for his beliefs and that liberal, gay, promiscuous America would be vindicated for its immorality by seeing Duck Dynasty permanently banished along with racist chef Paula Deen, who’s already taken up permanent residence in the cable TV woodshed.
Dire Duck predictions aside, based on their best numbers being anywhere from seven- to six million fewer than A&E’s Duck Dynasty on its worst day, an HBO heavy hitter would probably be thrilled to have 8.5 million season debut viewers.
Unfortunately for them, and fortunately for everyone else, they never do.
Instead, the station that entertains viewers with beheadings, full frontal nudity, promiscuity, and all-around vulgarity is considered a leader in successful cable series.
Take for instance the “hit” show Girls, starring director, writer, and creator Lena ‘First Time’ Dunham. For the Girls’ third season debut, 1.1 million viewers dying to see “overtly sexualized” Lena, the daughter of an artist who creates “overtly sexualized pop art,” tuned in to watch.
Twenty-something tattooed Lena Dunham, the woman who puts the ‘Ruben’ in rubenesque, has even subjected her audience to watching her play Ping-Pong in the nude, which apparently is considered acceptable in hip and trendy circles, but is certainly more offensive to most than Phil Robertson citing Scripture to substantiate traditional beliefs.
It’s not surprising that Girls’ viewers were so thrilled with the recent premiere that for the second episode, 219,000 of Lena’s fans, about 20% of the 1.1 million initially interested in watching a chunky girl with OCD eat Doritos and fornicate, decided to watch something else.
As for other HBO premieres, the same holds true for the highly-touted, violent, sex-laden prohibition era/Steve Buscemi hit show Boardwalk Empire, which premiered in 2010 with 4.8 million viewers. The other sex-saturated, blood-soaked, HBO debauch-fest, the fantasy drama Game of Thrones, debuted in 2011 with a rousing 2.2 million viewers, which is also a far cry from the 8.5 million viewers that tuned in on a Wednesday night to watch the premiere of Duck Dynasty.
In the wake of the Phil Robertson GQ controversy, the entertainment media, the gay lobby, and Hollywood will likely band together to try to elevate hit shows that feature story lines and characters whose focus is quite the opposite of the wholesome, family-oriented Duck Dynasty, with its supposedly paltry 8.5 million viewers.
The truth is that half of America is comprised of people who were not offended by Phil Robertson’s beliefs and in fact agree with what he said, and most assuredly support his right to say it. The reason Duck Dynasty is reviled by liberals is because much to the left’s chagrin, by and large America is a nation that appreciates seeing a family love one another and hearing them close their show with a moral message being summed up with a prayer.
