About Those 'Mad Men' Ratings

The final season of AMC's 'Mad Men' premiered on April 13 to only 2.3 million viewers. For a show that's been on the air since 2007, why didn't more people tune in? I think a number of reasons can be attributed to the show's less than stellar ratings performance this past Sunday. Some shows get more popular as the seasons progress, like 'Breaking Bad.' But other shows just tend to lose their luster. Audiences might be sick of Don Draper's philandering ways. 

Another problem that exists is that there is so much great television to watch these days that people tend to fall behind on certain shows. Netflix is a great way to catch up on or discover a new program to watch. However, AMC is very slow to give the streamable seasons of 'Mad Men' to Netflix. The last episode of season six of 'Mad Men' aired on June 23, 2013. That season was only made available on March 31st of this year. Fans had to wait nine months to watch season six, and only had thirteen days to catch up until the new season started. If those episodes had been up on Netflix earlier, more people would have been able to catch up in time for the season seven premiere. As I mentioned before, we are in an age of amazing television. It doesn't help that HBO's megahit show 'Game of Thrones' also airs on Sundays. They are on at different time slots, but viewers can't tune in live for everything. HBO GO has every episode of 'Game of Thrones' for viewing. I was able to watch all of season three just in time for the season four premiere on April 6. A new episode of 'Game of Thrones' is available on HBO GO on the same day that it airs on television. Personally, I caught up on that show and now I am able to watch new episodes as they air. However, I am now just going to start streaming season six of 'Mad Men,' which means I probably won't get around to season seven until 2015.