For A&E, one hit outweighed another.
The cable network confirmed Tuesday that production will resume on its number one reality series, Dog the Bounty Hunter, which was yanked from the schedule last year after the title star's son released a taped phone conversation to the media featuring his father's liberal use of the N-word.
After the eight-month-old recording showed up on the National Enquirer's website, A&E put the ratings winner on indefinite hiatus Oct. 31 and then canceled all scheduled repeats two days later.
On the tape, Duane "Dog" Chapman could be heard telling his son, Tucker, that he was uncomfortable having Tucker's black girlfriend around, "because we use the word n---er sometimes here. I'm not going to take any chance ever in life of losing everything I've worked for 30 years because some drunken n---er heard us say n---er and turned us into the Enquirer magazine."
Well, the Enquirer certainly did get the scoop on Chapman's poor semantic judgment, but it was the reality-TV star's son who sold his dad out for the rumored sum of $15,000.
"We take this matter very seriously," A&E said in a statement at the time. "Pending an investigation, we have suspended production on the series. When the inquiry is concluded we will take appropriate action."
Chapman immediately issued an apology, telling fans he was ashamed and willing to do whatever it took to repair the damage.
"I am deeply disappointed in myself for speaking out of anger to my son and using such a hateful term in a private phone conversation," said the 55-year-old father of nine. "I was disappointed in his choice of a friend, not due to her race, but her character. However, I should have never used that term."
In a tearful interview with Fox News' Hannity & Colmes, Chapman added said he didn't know what motivated Tucker—besides an apparently immediate need for money—to sell that tape.
He also said he always felt a kinship with black people, and that he used the N-word out of a sense of familiarity and closeness.
"I now learned I'm not black at all, and I never did it out of hate," Chapman said. "This sounds so stupid. I always did it out of love. Other white guys would be like, 'Boy, who does Dog think he is? Dog can say that.' And black guys would be with me and walk with me and respect me.
"So, I went too far with that."
A&E, which removed Dog the Bounty Hunter info from its Website just after New Year's, has not yet set a date for the show's return, but a camera crew is reportedly in place, and lodging and cars have been rented for a fifth season..
Dog the Bounty Hunter premiered in 2004, not long after he and his team caught up with convicted rapist Andrew Luster in Mexico.
While the footage of their pursuit won them a TV series, Chapman, his son Leland and partner Tim Chapman also ended up on the wrong side of a deprivation-of-liberty charge, because bounty hunting is illegal in Mexico.
The slate was finally wiped clean last month, when a Mexican appeals court upheld the case's dismissal after the statute of limitations expired, ruling the various Chapmans could no longer be extradited from the U.S. to face charges.