Zach Dilgard/AE The Robertsons, a duck-hunting family that is the subject of the TV series “Duck Dynasty.”
What have programmers at the television networks been thinking, putting on all those shows about cops, doctors and lawyers? America’s fascination has clearly turned in another direction: ducks.
The AE series “Duck Dynasty” has become a raging hit. The season finale, an hour-long edition Wednesday night, set new records for the series, scoring a best-in-television 3 rating from 10 to 11 p.m., among the advertiser-preferred audience group of viewers between the ages of 18 and 49.
Really more about a quirky bayou family that makes duck calls and decoys than about the birds themselves, “Duck Dynasty” is now the top-rated series in AE history.
The best any network show could do in that hour on Wednesday night was a tie between “Chicago Fire” on NBC and “Nashville” on ABC, with a 1.9 rating in that audience segment — far behind the duck-centric reality series on AE.
At least “Fire” managed to attract a bit more viewers overall — 7.2 million — than “Duck Dynasty,” which reached a total of 6.5 million viewers. But both totals were more than “Nashville” could attract — only 5.9 million viewers.
A Grammy nomination special on CBS trailed with 5.4 million viewers and only a 1.5 rating in the 18-49 age group.
Bill Carter writes about the television industry. Follow @wjcarter on Twitter.
Article source: http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/07/for-a-night-duck-hunting-reality-show-is-tops-on-tv/?partner=rss&emc=rss