'Mad Men' Premiere Juices Third Season

MadMen Season 3

The much-anticipated season-three premiere Sunday of "Mad Men" on AMC yielded the highest rating ever in series history.

The show pulled in 1.2 million adults 18-to-49 in its debut 10 p.m. hour, a 75% increase from the average for season two's 13 episodes.

The premiere also garnered a 2.1 household "live only" rating, according to Nielsen fast nationals, and 2.8 million viewers. That was 24% and 33% higher, respectively, than the season-two debut.

The Sunday debut episode was repeated at 11 p.m. and 1 a.m., yielding a cumulative audience of 4 million. AMC broadcast the episode last night in New York's Times Square, which has been partly turned into a pedestrian mall, as a promotional stunt.

Season two averaged 1.5 million viewers -- 1.3 million fewer than tuned in Sunday for the premiere.

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