Dog the Bounty Hunter hunts down incredible ratings

Meagan Morris is an entertainment and lifestyle journalist living in New York City. In addition to SheKnows, Morris contributes to many publications including The New York Times, Yahoo! News, PopEater, NBC New York and Spinner. Follow he...

Dog and family dealing with personal issues

Dog the Bounty Hunter is back for 2012! Find out what sort of shenanigans brought in millions of viewers during its Wednesday night debut.

Duane "Dog" Chapman and his family of bounty hunters snagged nearly 2.9 million viewers for the first episode of Dog the Bounty Hunter for the new season, according to the network.

"The eighth season premiere was cable's most-watched entertainment show in the 10 p.m. hour last night and A&E became the number one entertainment cable network in primetime among adults 25-54 and 18-49 for the night," the network said in a statement.

This season is poised to explore some family problems within the large Chapman family — daughter "Baby" Lyssa Chapman's March arrest will air on an episode, as will tensions between Chapman and his oldest son, Duane Lee.

"I love you, dad. This is Travis. I want to go home. I don't like it here," the boy told his father also named Travis. They gained custody after an audio recording surfaced that allegedly showed the father beating the child with a belt.

"I've told (my grandson) that daddy is not gone forever. Daddy has to go to school and you know what he told me, 'will they really tell him not to hit me anymore?' I said yes they won't just tell him they'll make sure, and he goes (big sigh) 'good,'" Dog said.

It sounds like they'll be dealing more with family drama than criminal drama this season.

Image courtesy Michael Wright/WENN.com

Did you watch Dog the Bounty Hunter Wednesday night? What are your thoughts on the new season?