‘Duck Dynasty’ Beats Out ‘American Idol’ For Social Media Hits

Duck Dynasty has reached the top of the television ratings, but the reality show about duck-call manufacturers has another sign of its success — social media hits.

The A&E reality show about the Robertson family has become the No. 1-rated nonfiction series on cable this year. At the same time, Duck Dynasty has become a social media powerhouse, generating more hits across all platforms on Wednesday than American Idol.

According to Deadline, Wednesday’s episode drew 5 million adults 18-49 and 5 million adults 25-54, averaging 8.6 million viewers for the hour. This performance beat out all of the prime-time shows on NBC’s lineup, and only American Idol on Fox drew more viewers among all shows, cable or otherwise.

Duck Dynasty performed well even outside of primetime, the Washington Post noted:

“Duck Dynasty‘s audience was about 3?million more people than tuned in to ABC’s Good Morning America last week to watch the much-ballyhooed, star-studded return of co-host Robin Roberts, who had been on medical leave from the show since August to undergo a bone-marrow transplant after a diagnosis of a rare blood disorder myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) — likely caused by treatment for breast cancer five years earlier.”

The Duck Dynasty family, the Robertsons, got a bit of a boost from some controversy this week as well. The family was booked to appear on Jimmy Kimmel Live, which prompted former Smiths frontman Morrissey to cancel rather than share the stage with what he called “animal serial killers.” This led to a mini war of words between Kimmel and Morrissey.

The spat could help draw attention to Duck Dynasty, but it doesn’t appear the show needs any more help. Wednesday night’s Duck Dynasty premiere jumped by 132 percent in total viewers and 127 percent in the demo from the season 2 premiere, MSN noted