A&E is definitely trying to get the best of both worlds, despite the controversy surrounding Duck Dynasty over the last few days. Despite suspending Duck Dynasty star Phil Robertson from future episodes as of last week, they’re still taking advantage of the controversy to boost their ratings – and they’re airing an uninterrupted Duck Dynasty marathon featuring 25 episodes, starting on Christmas Day and ending in the early hours of December 26th.
One of CDL’s own writers, Cate Meighan, was featured on the Fox News report announcing the marathon. As Cate so succinctly explained, the network is trying to appeal to everyone right now. They’ve possibly suspended Phil, (but we here otherwise), so as to ward off criticism over his recent comments, yet they’re still airing old shows to keep the backlash to a minimum. Considering there is a huge amount of backlash from fans, and Duck Dynasty is their top rated show, it’s not unreasonable to expect that A&E would be trying their best to retain their audience.
As Cate explained, “It is really a money thing. You’re going to have the same people tuning into ‘Duck Dynasty’ that always have and the same people not watching that always have.” In the end, it always depends on advertising. There are shows that barely pull in heavy number ratings, but manage to mint money through advertising because of their target demographic. While Duck Dynasty’s total figures can reduce, their target audience is still going to be the same and that means the advertisers will be flocking to it like always.
What do you guys think? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
