Dog Barks Up Ratings
A&E’s ‘Bounty Hunter’ Returns With 2.7 Million Viewers
By R. Thomas Umstead -- Multichannel News, 7/17/2008 3:52:00 PM
A&E’s Dog The Bounty Hunter howled again on cable…and viewers heeded the call. The reality series, which A&E suspended last November after racist remarks made by series star Duane Chapman were posted on the Web, drew 2.7 million viewers in its July 16 return, network officials said.
The audience for the fifth-season debut of the series, which follows the exploits of bounty hunter Chapman (pictured) and his family, finished ahead of the 2.1 million viewers generated for the show’s 2007 season four opener. The show also garnered 1.4 million viewers in both the adult 18-49 and 25-54 viewer demos, A&E said.
Last night’s other high profile reality series debut, TV Land’s Family Foreman, drew 552,000 total viewers in the 10 p.m. ET time slot. The audience for the premiere episode of the series, starring former heavyweight champion George Foreman and his family of 10 kids, fell short of that for the premiere of two other freshman TV Land series, She’s Got The Look (669,000) and High School Reunion (617,000). TV Land has renewed both of those series for a second season.
