Both The Wall Street Journal and Mediapost are calling it Super Sunday. And they're not talking about football. Instead, it's about event TV... on cable.
First, it's the long-awaited series finale of Breaking Bad on AMC. And then, it's the season premiere of Homeland, on Showtime. Not NBC, CBS, ABC or FOX.
Showtime, as a premium subsciption channel, doesn't run ads. But the quality and popularity of shows like Homeland and the recently-departed Dexter draw more subscribers.
For advertiser-based AMC, it's about eyeballs, which translates into more money for ads. Advertising Age reports that AMC is getting between $300,000 - $400,000 for a 30-second spot on the finale broadcast. Ads on the show earlier in the season, which has been drawing steadily higher numbers of viewers, ran about $140,000 for a :30. A 30-second spot on ABC's hit Modern Family, for compaison, is in the $300,000+ range.
Last week, 6.6 million people tuned in to watch the next-to-last episode of Breaking Bad. With all the hype, the audience is expected to be a lot bigger on Super Sunday. And series creator Vince Gilligan has been hitting the talk show circuit promising us we won't be disappointed with the show's outcome.
If drug-related violence isn't your thing, another cable channel -- HBO -- has prohibition-era whiskey-related violence Sunday night, in the form of Boardwalk Empire. And, oh yes, another kind of violence is on NBC -- NFL football.
Thank goodness for the DVR on a night like this Super Sunday.
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Vince Gilligan did not disappoint us. A perfect ending to a great series.
Posted by: Shelly P | September 30, 2013 at 11:20 AM