At one point in its short but somehow still long history, A&E's Duck Dynasty was one of the most popular unscripted shows on television. It was also A&E's highest rated program ever. And then the wheels came off. The show took a lot of flack when patriarch Phil Robertson made some comments to the press about gay people living in sin, and while the show returned to the air after that, the numbers no longer swelled as high as they once did. Now, the show is set to end, although it's not happening tomorrow. In fact, the network has already filmed one last season that will air through the early part of 2017.
News broke yesterday via a video the Robertson family filmed, noting that the show would be ending after Season 11.
According to the video, the Robertson clan actually made the decision to end the series, rather than A&E, although the network has not come out to make a statement about the decision, yet. Clearly, there were no hard feelings about the series leading to this ending. At one point in the video, the family even intimates that there may be a few Duck Dynasty specials coming to A&E down the line.
New episodes of Duck Dynasty currently air on Wednesday nights on A&E, and we can expect new episodes to air on the network through January 18. A final set of episodes will run in the spring, in March and April. The final episode will air on April 12.
Reality shows do not often have the shelf life that Duck Dynasty has had. The show only kicked off in 2012, but the A&E series is already currently in its 11th season on the network and already hit its 100th episode back in Season 9, which also aired in 2016. Season 11 just kicked off this week on the cable network with an episode about Willie and Jase both racing to become the next president of the homeowner's association.
For a while, A&E had a pretty strong programming lineup, thanks to having Ducky Dynasty and scripted programs Bates Motel and Longmire in the lineup. However, Longmire was cancelled a few years ago and then shuffled over to Netflix, where it will also be ending its run soon. A few months ago, A&E also announced that Bates Motel will be ending after Season 5 finishes its run. With Duck Dynasty also heading out, most of the network's tentpole programs will soon be gone. A&E does still have the occasional Intervention special and programs like Wahlburgers, but it's definitely slowing down on the noticeable programs front.
For now, you can catch the Duck Dynasty family on Wednesday nights at 9 p.m. ET, only on A&E. In addition, you can find out what is hitting the schedule in 2017, here.
