Zach Dilgard/A&E The Robertsons, a duck-hunting family that is the subject of the TV series “Duck Dynasty.â€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 A&E 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 t hat makes duck calls and decoys than about the birds themselves, “Duck Dynasty†is now the top-rated series in A&E 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 A&E.
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.
