Discovery Channel kicks Ted Nugent to the curb

By Stephen C. Webster/Raw Story

In addition to cancelling its popular “American Guns” reality show, The Discovery Channel confirmed to Raw Story on Tuesday that firearms enthusiast Ted Nugent will also not be returning to the channel in any form or fashion.

Speaking to Raw Story in remarks specified as “not for attribution,” a spokesperson admitted that “Ted Nugent’s Gun Country” didn’t do very well when it aired in October, even with fellow firearms fashionistas. Nielsen Ratings placed the viewership at about 864,000 people in all. But the network’s decision is not just about the numbers.

After Friday’s devastating massacre at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, the spokesperson said that Nugent would definitely not be returning to the Discovery Channel.

Nugent and his allies at the National Rifle Association (NRA) repeatedly claimed that his hour-long Discovery Channel special was actually a planned “series.” The Detroit native and longtime southern rocker even told Armed America Radio listeners in October to “expect that there will be at least a dozen shows a year.” The channel’s spokesperson confirmed that this was never actually in the works.

Nugent, who endorsed Mitt Romney for president, was investigated by the Secret Service earlier this year after he urged NRA members to “chop [Democrats'] heads off in November.”

“I’ll tell you this right now, if Barack Obama becomes the president in November again, I will either be dead or in jail by this time next year,” the rocker said in April.

News of Nugent’s fall at Discovery comes the same day that the channel confirmed it is cancelling “American Guns,” a popular reality show that glamorizes a family that produces deadly weapons.

“‘American Guns’ concluded earlier this year,” the network’s prepared statement explains. “Discovery Channel chose not to renew the series and has no plans to air repeats of the show.”

Although the Discovery Channel’s statement did not directly link the cancellation of “American Guns” to Friday’s massacre, the channel’s spokesperson did say the tragedy “has really started something,” but didn’t specify what that something may be.

Nugent’s spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.