A&E and the Robertson family, the
stars of the cable reality series, announced Wednesday that the show
will end in April.
The news came in a short video
broadcast after the show's season premiere.
“After five years, 130 episodes and
one of the biggest hits in the history of cable, the Robertson family
and A&E jointly decided that Duck Dynasty, the series,
will come to an end after this season,” the network said in a
statement.
Duck Dynasty follows the
Robertsons, who live in West Monroe, Louisiana, and their duck-call
business. It premiered in 2012.
In 2013, Phil Robertson, the family
patriarch, was briefly suspended by A&E over racist and
homophobic comments he made during an interview with GQ.
“Start with homosexual behavior and
just morph out from there. Bestiality, sleeping around with this
woman and that woman and that woman and those men. … Don’t be
deceived. Neither the adulterers, the idolaters, the male
prostitutes, the homosexual offenders, the greedy, the drunkards, the
slanderers, the swindlers – they won’t inherit the kingdom of
God. Don’t deceive yourself. It’s not right,” he said, adding
that gays could be saved through Jesus.
Last year, he described what repenting
for gay men looks like: “Call the dude, find you a woman and marry
her. You're good to go. Come to Jesus. All your past sins will be
removed. … It's called repenting.”
At a campaign rally in January for
Texas Senator Ted Cruz, Robertson, who eventually endorsed
President-elect Donald Trump, called marriage equality “evil.”
The show's finale will be broadcast on
April 12. Duck Dynasty, once a cultural phenomenon, began
losing viewers in 2013. A&E said that the show's stars will
return in a series of holiday specials.