Cable ratings: ‘Duck Dynasty’ defeats ‘American Horror Story’ in total viewers

Want to know a shocker from the world of basic cable? Well, here it is: a group of duck call-makers from Louisiana managed to draw more total viewers on Wednesday night than one of the most-hyped cable series of the year. Even still, both parties do very much have something to celebrate.

On Wednesday night, “American Horror Story” officially managed to take the title of the most-watched show on cable in the 18-49 demographic, as it scored a 2.2 rating that actually put it ahead of every other show on the night with the exception of CBS’ still somehow-breathing series “CSI.” Given how much time and effort FX put into promoting this Ryan Murphy show, including releasing a series of mysterious teasers featuring random scary images, it would have been a huge disappointment were it not to win out against most of the competition.

With that being said, we are still surprised that “Duck Dynasty” over on A&E managed to actually topple the series in viewership, averaging just slightly over the 3.848 million that “American Horror Story” had on the night. Even though they were behind by slightly more than four-tenths in the demo, we cannot see this as anything other than an enormous victory for the reality show given not just the competition, but when you consider that this show looks like it probably cost way less money to produce, shoot, and edit than what Murphy and FX are doing.

This may actually be an interesting battle to watch all fall, as both shows have their own loyal fan following, and they each also have been able to pick up more viewers slowly and surely as the months have gone by.

What show do you think will end up coming out on top here?