I was a little premature on the whole Kourtney & Khloe beat down Don Draper thing! Last night's Mad Men set a series record 2.8 million (2.76M, edging out the Kardashian sister's 2.7M) viewers in the initial 10pm airing and had 1.24 million adults 18-49 (another record for the show) and 1.43 million adults 25-54. AMC has to be pleased (and Mad Men fans, too)!
Counting the additional rebroadcast of the premiere, Mad Men cumulatively was viewed by around four million viewers. Look for full numbers out to three decimal places tomorrow.
The premiere is up 33.98 percent from last year's 2.06 million. Definitely a good uptick!
Here are the season two numbers I had for Mad Men (some more detailed than others, all numbers Live+SD and for the initial 10pm airing only):
| Premiere Dates | Episode | Time | Total Viewers (Millions) |
| Sunday, July 27, 2008 | 201 FOR THOSE WHO THINK YOUNG | 10:00P -10:52P | 2.059 |
| Sunday, August 03, 2008 | 202 FLIGHT 1 | 10:00P -11:00P | 1.326 |
| Sunday, August 10, 2008 | 203 THE BENEFACTOR | 10:00P -11:00P | 1.255 |
| Sunday, August 17, 2008 | 204 THREE SUNDAYS | 10:00P -11:00P | 1.073 |
| Sunday, August 24, 2008 | 205 THE NEW GIRL | 10:00P -11:00P | 1.473 |
| Sunday, August 31, 2008 | 206 MAIDENFORM | 10:00P -11:00P | 1.456 |
| Sunday, September 07, 2008 | 207 GOLD VIOLIN | 10:00P -11:00P | 1.671 |
| Sunday, September 14, 2008 | 208 A NIGHT TO REMEMBER | 10:00P -11:00P | 1.87 |
| Sunday, September 28, 2008 | 209 SIX MONTH LEAVE | 10:00P -11:00P | 1.6 |
| Sunday, October 05, 2008 | 210 THE INHERITANCE | 10:00P -11:00P | 1.3 |
| Sunday, October 12, 2008 | 211 THE JET SET | 10:00P -11:00P | 1.5 |
| Sunday, October 19, 2008 | 212 THE MOUTAIN KING | 10:00P -11:00P | 1.4 |
| Sunday, October 26, 2008 | 213 MEDITATIONS IN AN EMERGENCY | 10:00P -11:00P | 1.75 |
And people were worried it wouldn’t do well. =)
Nice to see a series record for the show. I mean, its nowhere near USA, or TNT numbers(Robert, doesn’t some Adult Swim shows reach that number?), but its good for AMC.
True Blood Numbers!
As a long-time Mad Men fan, I’m really surprised to see a number like that, I’ve always assumed the show was too slow and esoteric to be popular.
And after a nervous first fifteen minutes, I really liked the episode. They did something difficult in a really unapologetic way, I thought it was cool.
You can’t judge a season of a show like Mad Men or The Sopranos from the premiere, the big wheels haven’t started to turn yet. But that number’s a good thing for fans of quality TV everywhere.
That is very good for Mad Men and over 1m more than it got in previous seasons I think AMC have been rewarded for sticking with the show but I think debuting the series later helped too because Army Wives was up as well.
AMC have some big projects in the pipeline as well as Season 3 of Breaking Bad, they have The Prisoner in November and Rubicon in 2010. I think FX should be worried because AMC is going to overtake them if they are not careful.
I’m with all of you. I didn’t expect it to do as well as it did, and I agree it’s cool that AMC is being rewarded for sticking with Mad Men, though with it winning best drama last year, I’m not sure that was ever in doubt..
But yeah, impressive numbers for Army Wives and Drop Dead Diva (Diva > Mad Men) too. I posted those numbers too, separately.
Christopher. I haven’t seen any True Blood numbers, and I’m guessing we won’t until tomorrow. I’m out for few hours, but if anyone sees them, please post a link or the numbers….
A more important number from the Hollywood Reporter comparing last year’s premiere to yesterday’s.
“Moreover, adults 18-49 jumped 71%, from 705,000 to 1.2 million”
I know Mad Men gets all the praise and awards but it wasn’t AMC first scripted show, that was Remember WENN which ran for four season and its follow up The Lot which lasted a season. They didn’t get back into scripted series until Broken Trail which was a ratings success and critically acclaimed and paved the way for Mad Men and eventually Breaking Bad.
What I like about the AMC originals is that they are both different but have similar undertones, I can’t wait for Rubicon and The Prisoner especially Rubicon which is a political thriller which will no doubt get acclaim. I hope they commission the miniseries based on The Things They Carried which is in development as well as The Walking Dead.
Last night’s ep was defintiely more inclusive for new viewers as opposed to last season’s premier, it was fast-paced and had some interesting action. But with the DVD sales being up so much this year in the first week, it seemed like the show was moving in the right direction, along with continued awards buzz.
I’m glad this show is building a fan base.
I really thought it would be down this year – just because they promoted it *so* much last year and it seemed to lose viewers after that. I assumed that people just didn’t get the fuss. They spent $25 million on the promotional campaign for it last year and I can’t believe they spent as much this year.
Class vs. Trash
Please to see class (Mad Men) was the overall winner.
Robert, do you have any True Blood numbers?
haha tom i already asked that and he said not intill tommrow
If you would’ve told me when they both premiered two years ago that Mad Men, a show set in the 60s focusing on a guy in advertising, would draw triple the viewers of Damages, a show set in the present day starring Glenn Close as a ruthless attorney, I would’ve laughed in your face. And yet here we are. I really thought there’d be a very, very limited appeal for Mad Men but the hype and publicity have been so incredible, they’re completely overriding that. Kudos to AMC, which, even with just two original series at the moment, is probably in better shape than FX right now. More buzz, critical praise and awards, and even more interesting shows on the horizon, or at least I think so.
Please let it keep climbing over Kardahsians. Great news!
Nick V, I agree about AMC and FX, it does seem that FX is having a similar crisis that HBO had before True Blood took off where none of their original shows are rating well with the exception of Sons of Anarchy and Nip/Tuck and the latter is ending. Their upcoming show Lawman looks good but FX needs to find a show that will put it back on the map or it will be overtaken by AMC and even Starz.
I have updated the post with a table of average viewer numbers for last year’s (season 2) episodes.
So next week should be some interesting numbers. Last year, over a third of the audience left.
What about True Blood’s numbers?
FX
Listed on TCA’s best of decade: Rescue Me, The Shield, Damages
Also on right now: Sons of Anarchy, Nip/Tuck, Sunny
Developing: Archer, Lawman, House of Cards, Lights, Fire in the Hole, Powers, The League
So it does look like they’re trying to build their audience a bit.
Either way, I’m sure it’s better to have your main broadcast network do well than your main cable network do well (i.e. Fox>FX while USA>NBC, relatively speaking).