It was an end of an era Sunday, and audiences turned out in big — but not quite record-setting — numbers for the series finale of AMC’s “Mad Men.”
According to Nielsen estimates that include live viewing and same-night DVR playback, an average audience of 3.3 million watched the finale — the show’s third largest audience ever and about 1.43 million (or about 75%) more than the previous week’s total (1.87 million). The series high came with the show’s season five premiere in 2012, when 3.54 million welcomed back the show after a 17-month break.
“Mad Men” did set a series high in its target demographic of adults 25-54 (1.7 million viewers), up about 70% (from 1.02 million) week to week.
AMC was expected to issue additional ratings data on Friday when “Live +3″ numbers are available from Nielsen — and there’s a chance that “Mad Men” could achieve a series-high in total viewers by this measure.
