I love Mad Men, and will be sad to see it go when the Series Finale airs this Sunday. But apparently, AMC wants to make sure everyone loves it, and they’re going to great lengths to make sure people tune in. AMC’s sister networks—BBC America, IFC, We Network, and the Sundance Channel—will be going dark on Sunday the 17th at 10:00 PM to encourage viewers to switch over to the Mad Men finale.
Which is kinda weird. I mean, do they not think that the Mad Men finale can compete with, I don’t know, reruns of Roseanne? Still, Mad Men is AMC’s breakthrough show, really—paving the way for groundbreaking television like Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead, and allowing AMC’s company to grow and BBC America to bring us smaller, more cult shows like Doctor Who and Orphan Black. It makes sense that they’d want to pay homage to the show that gave us complex characters like Don Draper and Peggy Olsen. AMC itself will also be airing the entire series starting tomorrow at 6PM ET.
According to The Hollywood Reporter:
An assist couldn’t hurt Mad Men. Despite its critical acclaim, and the brief run of these final seven episodes, the drama remains heavily time-shifted and draws a very modest haul among live viewers. Sunday’s penultimate episode averaged just shy of 1.9 million same-day viewers. Still, it’s the No. 2 scripted series on cable right now, behind only Game of Thrones. The latest live-plus-3 numbers have it rising past 3 million viewers.
So, you know, after you watch Game of Thrones on Sunday, you might wanna switch over to watch the Mad Men finale. All the cool, scotch-drinking, mutton chop-wearing kids are doing it.
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