Articles

August 15, 2013
 

THE SKED: “Duck Dynasty” Season Premiere Takes Flight

 

Amazingly, the phenomenon that is DUCK DYNASTY may still not have peaked.  Last night’s Season 4 premiere on A&E hit a new high, with 11.8M viewers (more than 2M more than April’s Season 3 finale), and an 18-49 number that should translate into a 5.0-5.1 rating (almost a full point above April’s 4.3).  That’s not far below the 12.4M/6.4 numbers for The Walking Dead‘s last finale, and puts Duck at the top of unscripted cable series.  It’s also far more than the 10M total viewers and mid-2 18-49 ratings scored by recent episodes of Under the Dome and America’s Got Talent, the highest rated summer shows on network TV.  The reported salary renegotiations with the 20 members of the Robertson family, giving them a collective $200K per episode in exchange for an extended number of seasons, may be one of the most profitable deals ever from a network point of view.



About the Author

Mitch Salem
MITCH SALEM has worked on the business side of the entertainment industry for 20 years, as a senior business affairs executive and attorney for such companies as NBC, ABC, USA, Syfy, Bravo, and BermanBraun Productions, and before that, at the NY law firm of Weil, Gotshal & Manges. During all that, he has more or less constantly been going to the movies and watching TV, and writing about both since the 1980s. His film reviews also currently appear on screened.com and the-burg.com. In addition, he is co-writer of an episode of the television series "Felicity."