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In the Season 4 premiere of “Duck Dynasty,” Robertson family patriarch Phil and his wife of 48 years, Miss Kay, have a wedding ceremony in their back yard, officiated by their oldest son. They were just teens when they got hitched and couldn’t afford a party.
There are no fights, no nudity, no designer gown and no other celebrities in sight, and yet nearly 12 million people tuned in. Wednesday’s premiere set the record for most-watched nonfiction series on cable ever.
Compare that to the overhyped Kim Kardashian nuptials, which only had a third as many viewers (not to mention resulted in a sham marriage that lasted for 72 days).
Or the buzzy Red Wedding on HBO’s “Game of Thrones” — three integral characters were brutally murdered plus nudity! A little over 5 million watched that.
“Duck Dynasty” is praised for its authenticity, it’s charismatic characters, it’s quirky setting. But the show’s runaway success has much to do with its wholesomeness. It’s G-rated, family-friendly programming that’s mostly absent from television today.
The A&E series is about the Robertsons, a backwoods Louisiana family that struck it rich with their business selling duck calls. They were millionaires before the camera crews came along, but there’s not a Birkin bag in sight. Phil and Kay still live in a doublewide, and their three grown sons are rarely seen sporting anything other than camouflage.
People can’t get enough of the bearded brood. The show’s audience just keeps growing, and two of the family members’ memoirs have topped The New York Times bestseller list all summer.
“You wonder where the ceiling is on this show,” says Brad Adgate, director of research at Horizon Media. “Their audience is 51% female and 49% male. That’s a strong dual audience. And the median age is 40 — right there in the sweet spot of the 18-49 demo. Even though these guys are older than 40, they resonate with a lot of young viewers.”
That’s in sharp contrast from most other reality TV.
Kardashian matriarch Kris Jenner’s lackluster talk-show premiere is a sign that the E! “Kardashian” franchise, which boasts a “look at how rich we are” lifestyle with plenty of bleeped vulgarities, is on the outs.
Bravo continues to push women behaving embarrassingly badly on the “Real Housewives” franchise and their latest “Princesses: Long Island.” But their inferior ratings speak volumes — smut doesn’t sell as well as good, old-fashioned family values.
“Duck Dynasty” isn’t just creaming the competition in reality. The hottest scripted shows right now are about a meth dealer (“Breaking Bad”), a troubled adman who grew up in a whorehouse (“Mad Men”) and a historical fantasy chock full of naked women and grisly death (“Game of Thrones”). “Duck Dynasty” triples the ratings of these Emmy winners.
Sure, those shows are well-written, well-acted and beautifully shot — but they’re not something you can watch with the kids.
“Last Thanksgiving, even before the Christmas special came and got crazy numbers, I started getting texts from friends around the country saying, ‘We’re not watching football, everybody is sitting down and watching the Thanksgiving special together — grandparents and grandkids and the generation in between,’ ” says Elaine Frontain Bryant, A&E’s senior vice president of nonfiction and alternative programming. “That says something.”
“Duck Dynasty” is often compared to “Here Comes Honey Boo Boo,” since they’re both about “redneck” Southern families. But “Dynasty” defies that stereotype. In “Honey Boo Boo,” about a kiddie beauty queen, the producers are clearly having a laugh at the family’s expense — every burp, fart and sneeze makes it to the final cut. On “Duck Dynasty,” the viewer doesn’t feel like they’re laughing at the Robertsons but with them. It’s not New York producers looking down on the rubes.
The unflinching displays of the family’s morals — respect your elders, family comes first and work hard — and are reminiscent of old-fashioned sitcoms like “The Cosby Show” and “The Andy Griffith Show.”
Each episode ends with the family praying at the dinner table. And that, the members of “Duck Dynasty” say, was something they insisted upon to the producers of the show.
“From Day 1, dad held up his Bible and said, ‘This is part of our lives, is this going to be in?’ ” the oldest Robertson son, Alan, told The Post earlier this summer. “And [the producers] were like, ‘That’s in, that’s part of who you are.’ ”
It seems a lot of America is just fine with that.
kstorey@nypost.com