Skip to footer

'Mad Men' season finale draws big ratings

The 'Mad Men' sixth season finale matched the record high of last season. 'Mad Men' is scheduled to air its last season in 2014.

|
Michael Yarish/AMC/AP
'Mad Men' stars Jon Hamm as ad man Don Draper.
  • By Reuters

The sixth season finale of the Emmy-winning drama "Mad Men" was watched by 2.7 million viewers, matching last season's record high, as the AMC period-advertising series wrapped up a season of change for lead ad man Don Draper.

U.S. cable channel AMC said on Monday that the finale to the 13-episode season was the network's highest rated, citing a 5 percent growth in its share of television viewers this year.

While the overall viewership was stable, there was a drop in viewers within the 25-54 age demographic coveted by advertisers, with 1.3 million viewers, down from 2012's 1.4 million viewers.

Enigmatic advertising executive Draper, played by Jon Hamm, faced his biggest challenges this season as he grappled with late 1960s cultural changes, as well as drifting apart from his wife as he engaged in an affair with a married neighbor.

In the finale, Draper finds himself unraveling at the seams as he tries to counter his excessive drinking, a suspension from his firm by his partners and efforts to come to terms with his own identity.

"Mad Men" creator Matthew Weiner said in recent interviews that season seven, scheduled to air in 2014, will be the final one of the series.

The drama is a strong player during Hollywood's awards season, often taking top television honors for its cast and creators at both the Emmys and Golden Globes.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to 'Mad Men' season finale draws big ratings
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/TV/2013/0625/Mad-Men-season-finale-draws-big-ratings
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe