Duck Dynasty is decidedly one of the more odd reality TV shows to come out. That’s saying something given that we’re talking about a genre that includes Toddlers in Tiaras, Scream Queens, and Who’s Your Daddy. The show, about a real family whose money comes from the invention of a duck calling device that’s popular with hunters, is one of those oddball bits of Americana that we could have enjoyed a whole lot more if things had gone just a little differently. It’s been three years since the show was canceled, and plenty of former fans are still wondering why. This is the real reason Duck Dynasty went off the air.
Death of a Dynasty: The Lowdown on Reality TV Cancellations
To explain how such a popular show can crash and burn so easily and quickly, we’d like to look at two other examples of reality shows that went down in flames. How you conduct yourself matters to TV audiences, and we can’t think of a better example than the tales of two ridiculously beloved hostesses. Do you remember when Paula Deen and Martha Stewart were all the rage? If not, you might be a little too young to remember the cooking and home decorating shows that were such a hit when Gen X and the Millennials were growing up. You missed some good stuff, but that’s okay. Let’s have a little chat about these famous women of reality TV who both lost their shows over some serious faux pas.
Martha Martha Martha
Martha Stewart lost her show (for a while) because she went to jail. That’s right, the charming host of all things DIY in home decorating got caught up in her very own insider trading scandal and was convicted. Not only did she do real jail time, but as a result, she eventually ended up eventually becoming friends with none other than Snoop Dog, possibly because people found it hilarious that one of them had been to jail. Yet, the other had a bad rep despite his clean record. They even collaborated on their own show.
Whatever else can be said of Martha Stewart, she’s got class. She did her time, made her peace with the show that would never be the same, even though she went back on the air after her release from prison, and moved on with her life. Martha took her fall from grace with aplomb, made new friends out of the jokes people were telling about her and enjoyed their company. Stewart’s whole world view was expanded, and dare we say enriched by the experience of losing her privilege. In short, this lady did everything right after she got caught screwing up pretty badly. She also didn’t insult anyone in the process. That’s extremely important, and we’ll get back to it in a minute.
Oh Paula
Paula Deen, like Martha Stewart, got caught up in a scandal. Unfortunately, it wasn’t for insider trading. After years of doing a delightful cooking show, some film of her surfaced that was less than savory. No, it wasn’t a sex-tape. Realistically, Paris Hilton had a sex tape, and it didn’t harm her career. Disturbingly, the videotape showed her making some racist comments, and Paula was quick to jump to her own defense, trying to minimize and excuse the actions. Ultimately, that didn’t work, though she’s been trying for years to get back into the public’s good graces.
People were furious that the cheerful and theoretically upstanding hostess had secretly been hiding a nasty side. Can you see the big difference here? Martha was hiding money ‘stuff,’ and she did her time with good grace, eventually becoming something of a pop culture cult-classic style icon. Paula was hiding something about her personality that belittled other humans, and she had the gall to try and defend or deny it. Audiences aren’t stupid. We’ll watch Jerry Springer stage a food fight. We’ll watch spoiled brides, teens and toddlers act like awful monsters, but being a secret (or public) racist doesn’t fly in this century. It’s like gay-bashing or kicking puppies. Some things folks won’t put up with, but they’ll watch you crash and burn with glee.
What Happened to the Duck Dynasty?
A deal is a deal, and even doing something pretty bad won’t get you out of finishing up your contract most of the time. You could technically say that what happened to the show was a drop in ratings, but that wouldn’t begin to cover the facts. Unlike Martha Stewart, no one on Duck Dynasty went to jail for a white-collar crime, and they certainly didn’t handle it by admitting fault and learning from the experience in a positive manner. No, sadly, it was much more of a Paula Deen situation but far worse. Phil Robertson and his Duck Dynasty were once the most-watched non-fiction show on TV. That was until he started sharing some of his personal views on gays and the south. His comments didn’t happen on camera initially, but he did say some pretty anti-gay things in a GQ interview.
The End
A&E suspended the show for a while but ended up bringing it back. However, the behavior and defense of the choices continued to exacerbate, and the ratings slid from the once lofty near-twelve-million viewers to less than two million. To be fair, A&E gave the incredibly popular show it’s season in the sun even after the patriarch made his ideas known. However, it turned out to be a bad plan. So, while ratings can be cited as the cause of the show’s demise, it was really the backward thinking and public expression of Phil’s outdated and disgusting ideas that tanked his empire. Some people still support his choices and share his views, but fortunately, that attitude is a throwback to another, less free era, and with luck, that’s where it will stay.
We’re all for people having the freedom of expression. After all, that’s one of the fundamental rights of being an American. However, a star who thinks the average person will support their repressive, homophobic, and other controversial views are badly out of touch with modern culture. As a result, they’re all but certainly doomed to fail at keeping people’s interest beyond some initial backlash. There was a time when people said the only ‘bad press’ was an obituary. Basically, that means that any news was enough to help keep a person in the spotlight regardless of the reason. These days we have more than a few news sources and far more to watch on TV. A few folks might tune in to support outmoded ideas, but it’s not enough of a majority to keep a network airing a show. Hence the modern version of that quote would read more like this: The easiest way to commit career suicide is to express things that repress others.
Final Thoughts
Times change and America has changed with them. Still, if you think being in the public eye is easy, think again. Good bad or ugly, everyone on screen is a real live human person. We all make mistakes. At the same time, we all have the internet and TV, and we all know that when stars mess up, everyone hears about it. So for those of you out there who have skeletons in their closets and still want to be on TV, maybe think twice. Should you succeed at getting any real recognition, someone will find your dark side and make sure everyone in the world can see it live. Worse yet, don’t try to defend a wrong choice to the public. It never works. The best a star can do is accept their mistake and show real progress going forward.
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