Duck Dynasty‘s Ratings Have Tanked

It looks like Evangelical America’s Favorite Fake Hillbillies© are no longer as popular following the media attention garnered by Phil Robertson’s Tourette’s-like intolerant outburst to GQ, followed by the discovery of several YouTube videos of ol’ bearded Phil preaching hate. Well the numbers have come in, and, to reword the old cliché, the ducks have come home to roost.

If the ratings for Duck Dynasty’s first episode of the season are any indication of things to come then it appears that patriarch Phil Robertson’s racist and anti-gay remarks made in GQ last year might have had an effect after all.

The A & E series launched its fifth season on Wednesday night and saw a significant decline in viewership with only 8.5 million viewers tuning in. This number is down a staggering 28 percent from the season four debut (which had 12 million viewers).

Also noteworthy within the ratings decline was a sharp drop in key demographics of the show’s audience, including adults 18-49, which were down 33 percent and averaged 4.2 million viewers.

(Hat tip: Crooks & Liars)

By: dave-dr-gonzo

David Hirsch, a.k.a. Dave "Doctor" Gonzo*, is a renegade record producer, video producer, writer, reformed corporate shill, and still-registered lobbyist for non-one-percenter performing artists and musicians. He lives in a heavily fortified compound in one of Manhattan's less trendy neighborhoods.

* Hirsch is the third person to use the pseudonym, a not-so-veiled tribute to journalist and author Hunter S. Thompson, with the permission of his predecessors Gene Gaudette of American Politics Journal (currently webmaster and chief bottlewasher at Liberaland) and Stephen Meese at Smashmouth Politics.