@hawkeye10,
Quote:I do, I love to watch power play out, and this is a very unusual case.
I don't think it's more unusual than the Paula Dean situation, or even the situation with Bashir or Baldwin, in terms of power. The power is all on the side of the network. It's their call in terms of what they want to do about Robinson's comments, just as it was Food Network's call with Paula Dean. And, at the moment, they're really not doing much of anything. They're going ahead with the new season, and he's in the 9 episodes that have been completed and they're not going to edit him out.
Quote:And the future of the show isn’t actually all that murky. The rest of the Duck Dynasty clan spoke out the day after the controversy erupted, defending Phil and implying that they might not be willing to move forward with the show — which is a massive hit for the network — if he were excluded, and the Daily Mail reports that the family believes the whole GQ interview may have been a set-up to trap Phil. But they might not have a choice about whether to continue with the show: an unnamed source tells Fox that the family may be contractually required to continue filming until the network pulls the plug (the show’s contracts were just reupped in August, for a reported $200,000 per episode for the family). A few smaller networks have told TMZ they’d be eager to grab the show if A&E does decide to cancel. In the mean time, fans who haven’t been following the news might not even be able to tell anything’s going on: Entertainment Weekly has reported that 90 percent of the season’s episodes and have already been shot and contain Phil, and that they won’t be edited to exclude him. As of now, the show will return to the network on Jan. 15, as scheduled — and it’s conceivable that the indefinite hiatus may end in time for everything that has gone on this week to remain out of the camera’s sights
http://entertainment.time.com/2013/12/23/duck-dynasty-controversy/#ixzz2oeGWT0MD
The power really isn't on the side of the duck clan. A & E holds the cards, and because this franchise is so profitable for them at the moment, they'll hold onto it. All the publicity is good for them, they're not going to be hurt by any of it. If fans want to see Duck Dynasty, they'll have to tune into A &
E to do that.
The production company just can't take the show elsewhere. A & E owns the intellectual and property rights to the show. So, an interval has to pass before it could go on another network, and A & E can engage in tactics to stretch that interval out, if they want to. And, at the moment, the family is obligated to A & E by their contract. And what would be their motive to leave? So far, A & E hasn't done anything to them.
