As most media worship god the almighty $$$ and DD being the highest rated cable show (and therefore richest), I somehow think all this will be worked out. (follow the money)...
Also, if they so desire I figure the Duck Dynasty guys (and gals) could launch their own network and find success... sending A&E back to the artsy-fartzy oblivion from whence it came. So I speculate.
I lived a great deal of my life outside the US. When I came back to work 3.5 years (2010) in the DC area...I got cable TV. I was kinda shocked at the number of channels and varied options that a guy could have.
This kinda brings me to a couple of observations.
First, I’m amazed that marginal number of viewers would be enough to support the Golf Channel or the Cooking Network. There’s obviously not a huge following but enough to make a network possible.
Second, I’ve come to note that the whole management crowd for networks are kinda like major league baseball. Some real losers managing their networks, and some bold managers pushing a marginal network to success.
Third, the options via cable TV? Ten times better than what the big-three offered from two decades ago. I lived in the US in the late 80’s...and thought it was pretty marginal entertainment at that point in time. Cable, and eventual streaming video...are going to kill off the profit ability of the big-three.
Fourth and final. It’s hard to see a network invented out of thin air, that fit’s the Duck Dynasty values. It’d have to be clean entertainment...acceptable to kids and the older generation....and some stories/shows that would hold viewers to the network. A one-show network won’t work. You’d have to find a dozen Duck Dynasty themes to make this work.