‘Mad Men’ season 6 premiere ratings down; what’s to blame?

Is the gloss finally starting to come off of “Mad Men” a little bit? Despite being one of the most critically-acclaimed series on all of television, and despite having numbers that have increased every season to this point, the show just couldn’t keep the positive momentum going for its season 6 premiere on Sunday night.

Overall, the show drew 3.4 million viewers as a whole, along with a 1.4 million in the 18-49 demographic. While these totals are both a slight increase over the average for season 5, it does mark a slight drop from the first episode last year that featured Megan Draper’s iconic “Zou Bisou Bisou” performance.

So what could be the reason for the decline this time around? If you want to make excuses for it, there are really a few factors that you can blame:

1. Competition – “Game of Thrones” is drawing higher ratings this year, and we’re sure that Sunday night’s episode fared much better without the competition of going up against “The Walking Dead.” Plus, the ACM Awards drew its highest numbers in 15 years on Sunday.

2. DVRs – Let’s face it: more people own them, and it reduces a two-hour show to one that is an hour and a half in length. It’s ironic, but people are interested in skipping advertisements on a show all about advertisements.

3. Quality – Not everyone liked season 5 in between the heavy use of Megan and what Joan did to secure her new position as partner. Just based on that alone, we’re not particularly stunned to see that the numbers are down, and after Sunday’s depressing premiere it could happen again.

What’s your take on the “Mad Men” ratings? Be sure to share what you think, and you can read our full review of the premiere over at the link here.

Photo: AMC