AMC Renews Mad Men For A Second Season
Drama Marked First Original Series for Network
New York - NY, September 24, 2007 - AMC announced today that it will renew Mad Men for a second season continuing the network's mandate to deliver a distinctive viewing experience through cinematic-quality original programming. Created, written and executive produced by Matthew Weiner (Executive Producer/Writer, "The Sopranos"), Mad Men follows the personal and professional lives of New York advertising execs circa 1960. Lionsgate (NYSE: LGF), the leading independent filmed entertainment studio, produces the series. The Season One finale airs Thursday, October 18th at 10PM EST.
The first season of Mad Men received unprecedented accolades from the press including being deemed "the best new show of the summer" by The New York Post, "unmissable" by Time Magazine and "Must See TV" from Newsweek. The Los Angeles Times declared "If you want to feel good about being alive on the planet in 2007, watch the premiere of Mad Men on AMC" and the Wall Street Journal stated that Mad Men is "one of the best-written, all-around sparkling works to come along in many a summer season."
To date, Mad Men has reached more than 21 million viewers and more than 16 million households on AMC (1). Mad Men on Thursday @ 10p has reached over 6.2 million households and more than 7.9 million viewers (2). Overall, the 9 premiere episodes of Mad Men are pacing at a .8 HH rating and delivering 774,000 homes on Thursday night, maintaining its movie lead-in performance (3) Performance to date, during the 10pm Mad Men premiere episodes, both Household and A25-54 ratings are on par to AMC's Prime average for the last completed quarter, 2Q07 (4). A higher percentage of Mad Men's target viewer's (A25-54) have Household incomes over 100k+ (32%) more than any other new ongoing scripted series to premiere on basic cable this summer. (5)
Source: Nielsen Media Research. NPower 75% unification, 6 minute qualifier. Reach among all telecasts of Mad Men on AMC 7/19/07-9/16/07. Source: Nielsen Media Research. Npower 75% unification, 6 minute qualifier. Reach among all Thurs 10-11pm Mad Men telecasts on AMC 7/19/07-9/13/07. Source: Nielsen Media Research. Mad Men 7/19/07-9/13/07 performance compared to Lead in movie airings 7-10p 7/19/07-9/13/07. Source: Nielsen Media Research. Mad Men 7/19/07-9/13/07 performance vs. 2Q07 (4/2/07-7/1/07) M-Su 8-11p average. Source: Nielsen Media Research, Npower. % composition of Adult 25-54 HHI $100K+ premiere telecast of an original summer series airing on basic cable in 2Q07 thru 9/16/07.
Mad Men is a smart and cinematic drama about advertising executives on Madison Avenue when the industry was at its height of glamour, power, and prestige. The setting is the Sterling Cooper agency, which sells everything from cigarettes to political candidates. The protagonist, Don Draper, is a fast-rising creative director whose smooth exterior conceals any number of secrets. The show's cast includes: Jon Hamm ('We Were Soldiers'), Elisabeth Moss ('West Wing'), Vincent Kartheiser ('Angel'), January Jones ('American Wedding'), and Christina Hendricks ('Kevin Hill'), as well as guest star John Slattery ('K Street', 'Sex and the City').
Today's announcement comes on the heels of AMC receiving four Emmys awards for its first ever original movie event Broken Trail including Outstanding mini-series, Outstanding Lead Actor for a mini-series or movie for Robert Duvall and Outstanding Supporting Actor for a mini-series or movie for Thomas Haden Church. The network followed the success of Broken Trail with its first original drama series Mad Men that premiered in July of 2007. Continuing its original programming momentum, AMC will premiere its newest original series, Breaking Bad, in January 2008. The series is created by Vince Gilligan (X-Files) and follows the story of a desperate man, played by Bryan Cranston (Malcolm in the Middle), who turns to a life of crime to secure his family's financial security.
