Duck Dynasty records

How did a show about a 'redneck' family who make duck calls become the most watched cable show EVER? Season premiere of Duck Dynasty shatters records

11.8 million people watched the August 15 season 4 premiere

By JOSHUA GARDNER

PUBLISHED: 02:16 GMT, 16 August 2013 | UPDATED: 08:34 GMT, 16 August 2013

The A&E series Duck Dynasty made a big splash Wednesday when it kicked off its fourth season with the highest ratings for any cable reality show in history.

The show that follows the Robertsons—a West Monroe, Louisiana brood of duck hunters who’ve become filthy rich from a business selling duck calls—who drew an unbelievable 11.8 million viewers on Wednesday.

And they’re probably getting filthier. The record ratings come after A&E gave in to the off-beat clan’s demands for higher pay and amidst the growing popularity of the Duck Commander brand merchandise that made them rich in the first place.

The network said the episode took its place as the No. 1 non-fiction series telecast in cable history in total viewers as well as all key demographic groups, most notably the coveted 18 to 49 demographic.

The fourth-season premiere grew by more than one-third in total viewers over last season's debut.

Season three premiered with 8.6 million viewers last year and ranked as the number two most watched cable show of the season, behind AMC’s The Walking Dead.

It's a phenomenon even Jase Robertson, one of the family's bearded second generation, thought he'd never see.

‘My dad (Phil) echoed that,’ he told USA Today. ‘I think he said something along the lines of “A redneck family, they're not going to run that.”’

The blockbuster premier on Wednesday placed the long-bearded Robertson boys ahead of another famously hirsute cable star. Duck Dynasty’s 11.8 million viewers beat out the wildly popular conclusion of History’s The Bible, which portrayed the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, by around 100,000 viewers.

source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2395351/Duck-Dynasty-shatters-records-watched-cable-reality-EVER.html