AMC’s decision to split the fifth and final season of Breaking Bad starring Bryan Cranston into two years is proving to be a stroke of genius thus far.
Sunday night’s Breaking Bad: Season 5 midseason finale saw a substantial ratings boost compared to the Season 4 finale. The 2.8 million total viewers is a 47 percent increase from the Season 4 finale and the continuation of a trend that has seen Breaking Bad’s ratings increase year-over-year rather than decrease as most serialized dramas tend to do.
Looking at all eight episodes of Breaking Bad that aired this year, they showed an overall increase of 39 percent over the same episode span from Season 4 with a total of 2.6 million viewers per episode. In the advertiser friendly 18-49 bracket, Breaking Bad has seen a 56% increase to 1.6 million viewers per episode.
It’s a safe bet that the next eight episodes – the final eight – will show another ratings increase when they debut in summer 2013. Says AMC president Charlie Collier, “we can’t wait to share the final eight episodes with our audience,” though the details of those episodes that will bring the series to a close are still being hashed out in the writers room.
Breaking Bad: Season 5 Part 1 is already available for pre-order on Blu-ray and DVD at Amazon.com.
