• Variety, Monday, September 24, 2007 10:15 AM

AMC's renewal of original drama "Mad Men" was anything but a done deal, as the cable net was paying license fees of about $1.5 million per episode, but getting only an average of a million viewers. But the channel has stuck with the program, as a way to begin the transformation from an all-movie network to a channel offering HBO-caliber scripted series.

It is not alone in its heavy investment in such fare, as Oxygen, Soapnet, Animal Planet and Court TV are among the cable nets going with scripted or at least developing them. "People watch individual shows on broadcast TV," says Steve Koonin, president of Turner Entertainment Networks. "But on cable, they tune in to the network." And it has paid off for his net with high ratings for "Saving Grace," while other rookie shows, like Lifetime's "Army Wives" and USA's "Burn Notice," have also seen some success.

"Madison Avenue is waving pom-poms and cheerleading," says Laura Caraccioli Davis, a media buyer at Starcom. "These originals help define some of these networks in the advertisers' mind." She adds that even with its poor ratings, "Mad Men" has helped "put AMC on the map."

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