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Mad Men renewed for fourth season
by Allison Waldman, posted Sep 1st 2009 3:28PM
This should come as no surprise to even the most casual of TV Squad readers. Mad Men has been picked up for a fourth season, assuring that Matthew Weiner's engrossing and demanding tale of Don Draper and the people at Sterling Cooper will be played out for at least another year. When a show like Mad Men comes along, not unlike The Sopranos in quality and pop culture appeal, the question usually isn't whether the network will stand behind it for the duration, but whether or not the creative team envisions a long run.
This is especially true in the two cases I pointed out, because on HBO The Sopranos didn't need a huge audience, in the same way AMC doesn't expect Mad Men to reach double digits in the millions of viewers it captures. Currently, AMC is dancing a jig over 4.5 million viewers -- a record for that network -- but realistically that's a number that would put Mad Men in jeopardy on one of the big four.
AMC has literally changed its image thanks to Mad Men (and to a lesser extent Breaking Bad). That alone has made it a landmark accomplishment. How many shows have ever altered the image of an entire network, especially a network that's been around for a while?
Frankly, I think all Mad Men fans should be grateful that the show is on AMC. Sure, we have to endure some commercials, but the network tries to minimize the interruptions by being creative with the bumpers and such. Also, judging by the terrific marketing campaign mounted prior to the third season launch, AMC clearly believes in Mad Men and will stick with it for the duration.
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