News

The Dog is Back!! Thursday, May 15 2008

Bounty hunter Duane "Dog" Chapman will return this summer, months after it was pulled from the air after the star used a racial slur in a profanity-laced tirade. Filming has begun on the fifth season, according to executives with A&E. Reruns of the show will start June 25, with new episodes, including ones from the fourth season that have not previously aired, will begin a few weeks later on July 16th.

Last February, when announcing A&Es decision reinstate the show, the Network has stated that “Since the premise of Dog The Bounty Hunter is about second chances — we have decided to give him one.” "It's not about ratings," A&E spokesman Michael Feeney said. "We know his heart. We know him and know he's not a racist." Scott Lonker, vice president of nonfiction and alternative programming at A&E, added that viewer demand for the show also weighed in the decision. Chapman, has said he was "ashamed" by his racial comments. He said he has received counseling and reached out to blacks, speaking at a Martin Luther King Jr. Day event and participating in a toy drive.

“We're really confident that the time is right to bring him back,” said Dan Silbrman, the network’s vice president of publicity. A&E placed “Dog the Bounty Hunter” on hiatus in November after Tucker Chapman, one of the bounty hunter’s eleven children, sold a private phone call with his dad to the National Enquirer. During the conversation ‘Dog’ Chapman can be heard repeatedly using the N-word as he talks about his son’s relationship with an African-American woman.

“As far as the word that I said, it hurts people's feelings,” Dog said during a press event at the Kahala Hotel Wednesday to announce the show’s return. “I am not famous for that,” he went on. “I'm famous for grabbing someone if they're a felon, you know with blood in one eye and a tear in the other. “I'll hunt you down and then call you brother - that's the ‘Dog.’”

His wife, Beth, said her husband's use of the racial slur was not a reflection of the family's feelings and vowed it would not set them back. "We're Chapmans, and we're fighters," she said. "And brother, we're not going to settle in our setbacks. We're going to have a comeback."