‘Breaking Bad’ goes into series finale with ratings high; ‘Dexter’ sets record with its own finale

Who cares about the Emmys, or about NFL football? Despite some pretty heavy competition, including from each other, both “Dexter” and “Breaking Bad” set some new records for themselves last night.

The Bryan Cranston – Aaron Paul series prepared for its series finale next week in grand fashion, drawing an impressive 6.6 million viewers along with a 18-49 rating of around a 3.4. Very impressive, right? It is when you compare the numbers to past seasons, and realize just how much this show has grown from a niche program that only had critics and a few other fans fighting for it back during the first two seasons. It was season 3 when it started to take off, and the Gus Fring showdown the following year really put it on the map.

For those curious, we expect even larger numbers for the series finale, especially considering that it will not be the sort of thing that you want to wait to watch given the spoilers involved. We see a minimum of seven million viewers, which will be the largest viewing audience ever for a show on the network not named “The Walking Dead.”

As for “Dexter,” the serial killer drama ended his journey with 2.8 million viewers, making it not only the most-watched episode of the entire season, but also the most-watched episode of any show in the history of Showtime. Not a bad way for the character to go out, no? When you consider that the finale was really pretty bad in comparison to the early days of the show, the network really should be happy that it broke any sort of record at all.

Overall, what do you want to see take place on “Breaking Bad” next week? You can preview the finale at the link here, and we will be back with more throughout the week.

Photo: AMC