Duck Dynasty Ratings Continue to Drop

A face of bigotry

I continually say that bigotry carries an economic price - typically in the context of Virginia's homophobic and racist rural areas where unemployment is high and where few new businesses want to relocate.  After all, who wants to locate a business or plant in an area inhabited by social Neanderthals who will be hostile to educated and moderate individuals.  Sadly, the inhabitants of Southwest Virginia and parts of the Shenandoah Valley haven't yet figured out this reality.  But, based on the continued plummeting of the ratings for Duck Dynasty, the same economic truism holds true in the realm of television.  The New York Times looks at the show's apparent continued downward spiral and notes the homophobic mindset of the cast while ignoring their racism.  Here are excerpts:

For a second week in a row, ratings for “Duck Dynasty,” the prodigious success for the A&E network, were off sharply from its previous cycle, suggesting — though far from proving — that there has been a significant backlash to comments made by Phil Robertson, the patriarch of the family at the center of the show.

Those remarks were criticized for being homophobic by the network’s management, which first suspended Mr. Robertson and then retreated under pressure from conservative voices.

So far, the new season, the show’s fifth, is showing a significant audience falloff. The second episode, Wednesday night was down to 6.6 million viewers (before delayed viewing is counted) from 8.5 million for the second episode of the show’s previous cycle, which aired in August.

The audience for last week’s premiere, also 8.5 million, was down from 11.7 million for the show’s previous premiere.

Similarly, the show has fallen off in the category that A&E sells to advertisers, viewers between the ages of 18 and 49. The premiere last week came in at a 3.3 rating in that group, down from a 5 rating for the premiere in August. Wednesday’s episode dropped to a 2.9 rating.

Personally, I hope the ratings continue to plummet.   History is moving on and it is the Christofascists and white supremacists who deserve to be thrown on the trash heap of history.