The argument was:
AE backed down due to pressure. They had 2 options

Suspend and deal with the consequences

Lose duck dynasty to a different network

what don't you understand about this? In some form or another DD was going to win. They had ratings on their side.

Now they could have become Fowl Empire on some other network since ae owns the name, but AE had no cards to play.

Those contracts obviously didn't give much leverage to AE, or they wouldn't have caved.