Last night’s season four premiere of Mad Men scored drew 2.9 million viewers, making it the most-watched season premiere of the Emmy-winning series. Its viewership was up 5 percent from the 2.76 million people who watched last season’s debut episode. Mad Men‘s first season averaged 925,000 viewers.
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I hope the ratings continue! Last night’s premiere was fantastic… returning to the zippiness of the first season’s office politics, laying down many interesting plotlines, and providing many quotable quips (for some reason I loved Joan’s “I won’t even tell people after it’s aired” in regard to the Jai Alai special). Kudos!
Love love love this show…each epiosode and season is amazing.
It seems viewers are catching up via DVD. I just watched all three seasons leading up to last night. The show deserves every bit of praise it has earned. I will continue to be Mad Man fan.
Currently watching Season 2 of the just-as-brilliant “Breaking Bad”. Check it out.
two really great shows!
Mad Men is a great show…well acted, written and shot…but Breaking Bad is the best show on TV.
Mad Men made a smart decision in releasing the last season WELL BEFORE the new one started. I will never understand why all shows don’t do this. Instead of giving people one week before season premieres and new seasons, Mad Men S3 came out on DVD months ago. I just lent all my seasons to some friends and they were all caught up in time for last night.
My favorite program!
“A wooden leg. They’re so cheap, they can’t even afford a whole reporter”. Best line ever.
Best show ever! So glad it’s back.
Never thought I would ever like the show, but after just watching the first 3 seasons, it is undeniably great. No surprise to me now why it has won so many Emmy’s.
I wonder about the accuracy of the ratings. This show seems to be such a hit and everyone talks about it. How can it have an average of less than a million watching it every week?
The first season averaged less than a million viewers. There have been two more seasons since then which have had many more viewers.
I don’t want to say that ratings don’t count with cable networks, but it’s a VERY different game than that of the networks (NBC, CBS, ABC, FOX, CW). Even if a cable show doesn’t have great ratings, but it critically acclaimed, a cable station is much more likely to renew it than a network would be.
Mad Men is kind of a special case in itself though, it was the first cable drama to win an Emmy for outstanding drama, and there’s nothing else quite like it on television right now. I thought I wouldn’t like it because it was the sort of thing that seems more my parents’ generation, but I was allured by iTunes “$9.99 for a season” special and was instantly hooked.
Mad Men is not the first cable show to win the Emmy for best drama. Hello The Sopranos?
Ratings DO count for cable networks. You’re confusing basic cable networks with the likes of HBO and Showtime. Being on AMC, Mad Men would get canceled if it gets low numbers.
Well, first BASIC cable show to win the Emmy. For some reason my version of Comcast decided to make it premium though…although not at my parent’s house a few miles away on the exact same package.
I LOVE how EW is spinning this like it is a good number. The fact of the matter is, it is not for several reasons.
1. The amount of marketing and hype that AMC is putting into it. Including big word of mouth and extensive coverage from places like EW, a 5% growth is not good enough.
2. The show is now much more expensive to produce since Mathew Weiner is demanded a huge increase in the budget.
Mad Men has already won the Emmy twice. Getting all the awards. The fact that it only premiered to 2.9 million means that it’s not getting any more popular.
It obviously is getting more popular b/c more people are watching! I, for one, caught up via DVD and this is my first “real” reason. So, your assessment is crap. Good day.
You are correct on your thoughts. I love the show and am always pushing it for others to watch. When they all 3 seasons on demand, I constantly told people to watch.
Technically, a 5% growth does mean the show is getting more popular. That’s what a growth in viewership means. And “MM” has a very desirable demographic for advertisers.
He never said 5% increase wasn’t growth. He stated it wasn’t enough growth. furthermore the point he made wasn’t are more people watching but with increase cost for budget and advertising a 5% increase isn’t falling short of what the expected growth rate.
In other words with all the money that’s being invested in the show, the network expects at least x% and if they the actual growth is less than x% then it is a disappoint. Usually a season opener is a strong indicator of what the viewership will be for the year.
He stated that it wasn’t getting any more popular, which it is. Any growth means that the show is getting more popular. And a lot of the publicity the show has been getting has been, quite frankly, free.
And the 2.9 mil still doesn’t include itunes and DVR…
…it also doesn’t include all the people downloading it on Torrentz… just sayin’.
Or iTunes
AMC must be making a mint in DVD sales because there are so many people who don’t get the channel and yet still watch it. It is doing really well internationally as well. They haven’t reduced the price of the DVD as much as other shows and it costs more on amazon than many shows how have 20+ episodes in a season instead of Mad Men’s 13. Ratings aren’t the only revenue made from TV shows.
I keep thinking about Don and Joan together but, she’d probably be exactly what he wants/needs. She’d tame him and the show would be over.
Henry’s mom is my new favorite new character. She had the best one-liner of the night. And, yes, many storylines were put in place last night.
Haha, I wasnt home last night so I DVR’d MadMen but I dont want to watch it yet coz then Ill only disappointed knowing I have to wait another week before the next episode.I realize that makes absolutely NO sense-so I guess I’ll go watch it now instead of “the Bachelorette men tell all” Haha
I only started watching MM coz it was on after Breaking Bad and now it’s my favorite show! BB is great but last season got a little bizarre and unreal. I hope the new season gets back to the storylines like in the beginning. One thing is for sure, if I quit smoking I don’t think I’ll be able to watch Mad Men!!
Please do not smoke for your health’s sake, Lisa.
the smoking is part of the era but their lighting up makes me want to light up also
on the other hand, it is nice to watch the ladies’ manipulation of those smokes.
my favorite? slap! slap! slap!
i think the red head is a blonde in real.
vely intelesting