Chapman Out Of A&E’s Dog House
Net Okays Series Production, Four Months After ‘Bounty’ Star Suspended For Racist Comments
By R. Thomas Umstead -- Multichannel News, 2/20/2008 3:35:00 AM
A&E Network will soon resume production of its reality seriesDog The Bounty Hunter, nearly four months after suspending the show over racist remarks made by Dog star Duane Chapman.
While the network has yet to set a return airdate for the show, which follows the exploits of bounty hunter Chapman and his family, A&E officials said in a statement that it is making plans to go back into production.
A&E suspended the show in November after the National Enquirer posted an audio clip of Chapman using the n-word in reference to his son’s girlfriend during a private phone conversation. Dog, which had debuted on A&E in 2004, was one of the first reality shows A&E added to its schedule.
The combination of docu-dramas and acquisitions likeCSI: Miami and The Sopranos helped improve A&E's viewership and demographic performance and now set the stage for the summer launch of its first scripted drama, Cleaner, in six years.
“Over the last few months, Duane 'Dog' Chapman has taken and continues to take the appropriate steps in reaching out to several African American organizations in an effort to make amends for his private comments to his son which were released publicly,” said the A&E statement. “Since the premise of Dog The Bounty Hunter is about second chances -- we have decided to give him one.”
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