Even with reviews of a slow start, fans still tuned in to last Sunday’s third season premiere of Breaking Bad. The episode proved to be a ratings juggernaut for AMC, with 2 million viewers tuning in (3.1 million if including the immediate replay), making it the highest-rated episode ever.

If this trend continues, Don and Betty Draper better watch out because Walter White and Jesse Pinkman might soon replace the Mad Men couple as AMC’s newest sweethearts. Breaking Bad not only showed a double-digit increase in all demographics, but also a 63% total ratings increase since the series premiered in 2008. And it doesn’t seem like anything will be able to stop Heisenberg.

While the Breaking Bad season 3 premiere was arguably flawed, the second and third episodes really help to return things back to the high-quality storytelling that fans have become accustomed to. With the reveal of who the mysterious men are and why they’re looking for Walter - plus the return of many familiar faces - I’m hoping the subsequent episodes will draw just as many, if not more, viewers than the premiere.

Unless something extremely drastic occurs, there’s no doubt that AMC will renew Breaking Bad for a fourth season. Although, one has to question how long they plan on continuing the series. Despite a consistent increase in ratings, the story of Walter White is somewhat coming to a close.

With Walter’s cancer in remission and his obvious intentions to get out of the drug trade, there’s only so many ways that you can continue to pull him back into the thick of it before viewers start getting bored with storylines that seem all to familiar to ones of previous seasons.

Breaking Bad Premiere Breaks Records

I’m not saying that’s where the series currently is or that’s where they’ll be next year, but I honestly don’t expect Breaking Bad to go past six seasons. If anything, it looks like they could wrap things up nicely with a fifth and finale season.

Do you think Breaking Bad could ever overtake Mad Men in the ratings? Are you looking forward to the rest of this season? How long do you think the series can/should last?

Tune in to Breaking Bad Sunday’s @ 10pm on AMC

Source: TV Guide

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