‘Mad Men’ Final Season Will Be Split In Two

The final season of Mad Men will be split into two parts, AMC confirmed Tuesday.

The seventh season will be expanded to 14 episodes airing for the next two years. Seven episodes will air in spring 2014, and the last half will air in spring 2015.

Breaking Bad followed a similar format for its final season. The first eight episode of the show’s fifth season aired in 2012, and the final eight returned last month. The series finale airs September 29.

“This approach has worked well for many programs across multiple networks, and most recently for us with Breaking Bad, which attracted nearly double the number of viewers to its second half premiere than had watched any previous episode,” AMC president Charlie Collier said.

“We are determined to bring Mad Men a similar showcase. In an era where high-end content is savoured and analysed, and catch-up time is used well to drive back to live events, we believe this is the best way to release the now 14 episodes that remain of this iconic series.”

Creator and executive producer Matthew Weiner said the split season will give the show a “chance to have a more elaborate story told in two parts, which can resonate a little bit longer in the minds of our audience.”

Weiner took a bit of criticism from fans for the show’s sixth season. He said the season “might be a little salacious, but that’s what the show is.” He went on to say that the time period, 1968, was crucial to the series’ progress.

“That’s what it was about for me. Let’s get to the destruction. Let’s get to the loss. Let’s express the idea that people want to change, and change is afoot,” he said. “Because as far as I can tell, 1968 is a year about change, about revolution, about violence, about people turning inwards as community breaks down.”

The first half of Mad Men season 7 will be titled “The Beginning.” The second half will be called “The End of an Era.”