‘Duck Dynasty’ season 4 premiere sets record, topples ‘Under the Dome,’ ‘Breaking Bad’

Who knew that “Under the Dome” could be toppled by a family of duck call-makers with epic beards? Apparently, there is a duck inside of that tiny egg on the CBS show, carefully assessing the competition.

Despite airing on a cable network in A&E that was not previously known for this sort of smash hit, the season 4 premiere of “Duck Dynasty” last night broke cable records with 11.8 million viewers. If you exclude “Monday Night Football” games, this makes the episode the most-watched telecast of any nonfiction series in cable history. It’s well above where “Jersey Shore” was at its peak on MTV, and it also throttled the whopping ratings put up over the weekend by “Breaking Bad.”

For those more interested in the demo rating, “Duck Dynasty” put up an impressive 5.0. This is a number that, while impressive, has also been rivaled by “The Walking Dead,” and toppled by “The Big Bang Theory” on broadcast TV. So there is still a milestone out there that could be obtained, but, we have to say now that we believe this is around where the show will hit its peak. The Robertson family are pretty omnipresent now, and with all of the repeats that the network shows of this, we can’t imagine that this is a “Breaking Bad” situation at this point where new people are going to continue discovering. Considering, though, that the family is still only being paid $200,000 an episode, which is small by broadcast standards, this show is turning huge profits for everyone involved in the production. It’ll be around for as long as the family wants to keep making it.

You can read our full review for the premiere here, and we’ll be back next week with another look at the show.

Photo: A&E