Ten Things to Consider about the Business of Duck Dynasty

[lostinblue 1,989]

Ten Things to Consider about the Business of Duck Dynasty

Rob Long · December 20, 2013 at 11:04am

Whatever eventually happens with the Great Duck Dynasty Meltdown of 2013—and if you're behind, you can catch up here and here—one thing is incontrovertibly true: as the television business gets more and more fractured and the viewing audience gets more and more scattered, the balance of business power shifts away from network executives and towards guys like Phil Robertson.

And that's fine with me.

Ten things to consider:

1. Duck Dynasty is the #1 reality (unscripted) television show in cable history. It debuted last season to almost 12 million viewers. Twelve million. Want to hear something fun? On Monday night this week, MSNBC had about 600,000 viewers.

2. The cable outfit on which Duck Dynasty appears, A&E, cannot afford to lose the show. It's holding up the rest of their programming, lifting the network into prominence at a time when the cable universe is engaged in brutal and vicious competition. The only way to survive in the new television business is with break-out programming.

3. You know what works on television? Characters. Not plot, not dialogue, not special effects. Just characters. For the audience, a television show isn't a one-time decision. People become friends—in a weird but meaningful way—with the shows they like because they want to spend time with the characters on the show, either real or scripted. Or should I say, "real," because a lot of these "reality" shows are heavily produced and edited to tease out the bigger personalities.

4. I didn't say you have to "relate" to the characters on television. Or "approve" of them. You just have to find them interesting and likable. Twelve million people "like" the family on Duck Dynasty. I don't think that means that those 12 million people agree with the Biblical interpretations of the patriarch—maybe they do, but they don't have to, enjoying the show doesn't require that -- but every single viewer who watches the show likes the characters and their world enough to actively choose—and that's important: television viewing now is active and choice-driven; gone are the days when viewers would leave the set tuned to a network and watch whatever came next—to devote some time and effort to the show.

5. The second most important thing in the television business is to have a solid core of viewers who actively love your show.

6. The most important thing in the television business is to have a solid core of viewers who actively love your show, and have that solid core be numbered in the millions.

7. Please see Item #1.

8. When the Robertson family announced that they "cannot imagine the show going forward" without the participation of their family patriarch, Phil, what they were saying, essentially, was this: This is our show, this is our business, we are bigger than A&E and the terrified executives who run it, and we have the numbers to prove it. They're right. And they were also saying this: if you put real characters on television, you can't freak out when they act real and in character.

9. Duck Dynasty is a monster hit not despite the Bible-centered faith of its stars, but because of it. In the vast, manicured, same-same universe of programming—where everyone is either a Real Housewife or a metropolitan hipster—Duck Dynasty offers something different. A choice. A change of pace. That's why people watch it. The 12 million viewers don't have to love duck hunting or camo pants or ZZ Top beards or even the Bible. They just love the differentness and specialness of the family. It's fun to spend 25 minutes watching them interact.

10. A&E will cave. Some weasel-worded press release will go out, some oddly-constructed sentence about "faith" and "love" and some other stuff is probably right now being sweated and screamed about in the sleek city offices of A&E—you know what I mean, right? Aeron chairs and brightly-colored wall hangings, "fun" conference rooms and Nespresso machines—all because the programmers made a horrible, horrible mistake and put someone interesting on television.

They're probably searching the office for someone—anyone!—who knows something—anything!—about the Bible to help craft the request to the Robertson family that they "clarify" their beliefs. My guess is that they're trying to figure out how to ask Phil Robertson to say that he believes in Jesus Christ's essential teaching—love others as yourself—and that we're all sinners who need God's grace and forgiveness. Which will be easy, I think, because Phil Robertson seems like a pretty devoted Christian and that's a fairly Christian thing to say. But the gang at A&E doesn't know that because—and here we get to the nubbin of the matter—finding someone who knows and respects religion in network television is harder than finding a rabbi in Tehran.

[Full disclosure: I've never seen an episode of the show. I'm not a fan of reality television. I prefer scripted television, especially the kind scripted by me, because that always comes with a check attached. But I'm still rooting for the Robertson family, despite being a metropolitan secular RINO who loves gays and gay marriage and who once thought seriously about owning an electric car. Because television needs different and special to survive.]

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[OnMyWayID 1,489]

Hmm! Well Cracker Barrel gets to be #1 on reversing its decision of taking the duck dynasty products off the shelves. They released a letter:

Dear Cracker Barrel Customer:

When we made the decision to remove and evaluate certain Duck Dynasty items, we offended many of our loyal customers. Our intent was to avoid offending, but that’s just what we’ve done. You told us we made a mistake. And, you weren’t shy about it. You wrote, you called and you took to social media to express your thoughts and feelings. You flat out told us we were wrong.

We listened.

Today, we are putting all our Duck Dynasty products back in our stores. And, we apologize for offending you. We respect all individuals right to express their beliefs. We certainly did not mean to have anyone think different. We sincerely hope you will continue to be part of our Cracker Barrel family.

Edited December 24, 2013 by OnMyWayID

[elmcitymaven 9,712]

I'd like to see some hard facts that it's propping up all of A&E. Genuinely.

[OnMyWayID 1,489]

I've not cared enough to look into it but spending five minutes at A&E: They already have nine of the ten episodes for next season (the 5th) completed and put out a release that they would not be modified, "Phil" will be in them - on that same release they said they hoped he would be back for season six.. So that leaves what? One episode? They are suspending him for the break between seasons.. Whoopie do.

Edited December 24, 2013 by OnMyWayID

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

I'd like to see some hard facts that it's propping up all of A&E. Genuinely.

I think you are going to. Let's see.

I don't know enough about TV and nothing about this show since I have not had a TV for years and never watched a reality show...whatever that is. I did see a few episodes of "Mtythbusters" when I was in the hospital. Is that a reality show?

I support the rights of gay people to get married and live without having their rights stomped on because of what they do in the bedroom. I also agree this man (Robertson) has a right to express his opinion.

Unlike Martin Bashir, he did not say a woman should be forced to eat feces and unlike Alec Baldwin he did not scream obscenities and perjoratives at anyone. He expressed his opinion that he believes homosexuality is wrong...in a very measured and respectful way without attacking anyone. OK, so gays are going to have to accept that not everyone agrees with them. So what? Not everyone has to. As long as their rights are not interfered with and they are not discriminated against and Robertson's opinions are not the basis for LAW...who cares?

The only person that has been discriminated against here is Robertson.

That said, A&E also has rights, and Robertsons may well stick to their guns (so to speak) SO...if A&E feels that strongly and the Robertson's feel that strongly, then take "Duck Dynasty" to another network. Everyone stands on their principals and A&E loses a few million $$$$. Nothing compared to principals.

We'll see who has the stronger principals. Then we will see if it is really propping up A&E.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Is this ####### still going on? Robertson is an ignorant ####### and his show is reality TV trash.

He is not a martyr, he's an idiot.

Eff the lot of them.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Is this ####### still going on? Robertson is an ignorant ####### and his show is reality TV trash.

He is not a martyr, he's an idiot.

Eff the lot of them.

Idiots. That is precisely what conservatives rally around. Palin. Santorum. Bachmann. Robertson. Limbaugh. Beck. Hannity. O'Reilly. The list goes on.

Conservatives love ignorant tits. They see these as a reflection of their very self.

[DavenRoxy 1,073]

Is this ####### still going on? Robertson is an ignorant ####### and his show is reality TV trash.

He is not a martyr, he's an idiot.

Eff the lot of them.

A martyr? I don't see that. But an idiot? Not so much. He has his beliefs, and he's not ashamed to talk about them. Nothing wrong with that. There'd be more of that here, if it weren't for the mods.

And last I checked, idiots don't work and become millionaires.

[elmcitymaven 9,712]

I'm continually amazed at how little people know about the actual business of television, yet feel free to opine on it as if they were industry insiders.

A&E wouldn't be doing this unless they stood to lose more from keeping the show on the air with Phil a part of it.

Everyone is replaceable on TV. Every show is replaceable. Networks plan for these things. A&E is not going under and Duck Dynasty will soon be forgotten, another briefly popular show.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

I'm continually amazed at how little people know about the actual business of television, yet feel free to opine on it as if they were industry insiders.

A&E wouldn't be doing this unless they stood to lose more from keeping the show on the air with Phil a part of it.

Everyone is replaceable on TV. Every show is replaceable. Networks plan for these things. A&E is not going under and Duck Dynasty will soon be forgotten, another briefly popular show.

I don't know anything about TV, don't even want to.

But we will see if the folks running A&E agree with you. What I DO know is that sometimes decisions and actions are made without all the information and sometimes consequences arise afterwards. A&E has clearly hedged their bet by "suspending" him when they have plenty of shows "in the can" so to speak.

I mean Cracker Barrel already reversed themselves. Nice, sappy explanation that translates to "We thought we would make more money pissing off people that agree with Robertson but, turns out, we will make more money pissing off some gay people instead" Business is business.

Being good liberals A&E can always justify any future reversal with some sort of weasling explanation.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

A martyr? I don't see that. But an idiot? Not so much. He has his beliefs, and he's not ashamed to talk about them. Nothing wrong with that. There'd be more of that here, if it weren't for the mods.

And last I checked, idiots don't work and become millionaires.

Yeah. He's a regular hero

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Is this ####### still going on?

Yes...as long as you keep posting.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Yes...as long as you keep posting.

I don't think that's right Gary, I didn't start the thread.

[Karee 4,191]

I find it odd that A&E has such a problem, yet they have no issue showing 3 hours of Duck Dynasty re-runs on Christmas night.

[Darnell 8,479]

OMG - caught a Fox News Analysis about this fracas -

synopsis:

The head of the network at A&E got some complaints from 2 groups of homosexual workers at A&E -

one group was anonymous and

another group listed their names in the complaint .

So, it was the head of the network that made a decision to start that convo with Phil, in the first place. Had he/she not start that convo, made the decision NOT to have that convo, and (IMO) somehow placated the homosexual employees at A&E instead,

this never would have been an issue. Duck Dynasty is a cash cow for the network, and IMO that 'head of the network' person made the wrong decision, early on. I question that person's decision-making-process, as they already had the demographics and 'the $$ numbers' in front of them prior to making any decision. Also IMO, it would have been cheaper just to placate the homosexual employees at A&E. Now he/she's done something that's going to directly affect everyone's paycheck, not just the Duck Dynasty talent/crew.

That was a dumb@ss move, IMO, as the group to placate is small and money could have made it go away. Forgetting one's demographics is also a dumb@ss move, as well. But that's just extra sauce, to be honest, that other level of forgetting.

Ya, I did say Fox News. I rarely watch it, but when I do, i watch it for the comedic-bend..

Edited December 26, 2013 by Darnell