Let’s review the economics of this mess.
A & E produces a show that thrills roughly twelve million Americans to watch weekly. Another forty million consider the show acceptable but aren’t dedicated to it. If the chief viewers were gay or black....then they’d can the whole production and walk away. They aren’t.
So, would A & E produce some lesbian hairdress reality show from Coos Bay, some black dope dealing reality series from Memphis, or a group of five gay Mennonite guys from Tulsa working on a farm together? Maybe, but so far, they haven’t found that these special groups really stand by some reality series on their ‘culture’ or ‘class’. So bluntly, they don’t make money for anyone...then pass.
If you ask me....Phil and A & E created a $300 million dollar advertising campaign that didn’t cost them a single dime....and the show only got bigger over the past four weeks. By October of 2014, Phil’s show will be dominating all of TV, and blasting away at NBC, CBS, and ABC. They won’t be able to compete against Duck Dynasty. You could put Glee up against it at the same time schedule....and Duck would smash Glee.
That has certainly been the effect. I wonder to what extent they planned it.