'Mad Men' smashed popularity by 1 million viewers less

The final season has its lowest premiere ratings since the sophomore opener in 2008. It could only fetch 2.3 million viewers.

Mad Men has historically been a steady performer for AMC - solid but never spiking in a similar fashion to Breaking Bad or heavyweight The Walking Dead.

But Sunday night saw the series' final season actually dip in its premiere. The first of the seven-episode last season took only 2.3 million viewers. That's a 1.1 million drop from the comparable premiere last year and the series' least watched opener since the second season in 2008.

The most recent season premiere averaged 3.4 million viewers, more or less even with the prior. 

Among adults 18-49, Mad Men averaged 1.0 million viewers.

Mad Men has been very much about the prestige. The sitcom got the "Best drama" Emmy streak in 2012.

Mad Men had quite a bit of a competition, as well. Game of Thrones aired earlier on HBO, it was its highest competitor. Plus, MTV had its annual movie awards running across multiple Viacom nets.