TCA: 'Mad Men' To Return March 25 With Two-Hour Premiere

'The Walking Dead' Gets 16-Episode Order For Third Season

by R. Thomas Umstead -- Multichannel News, 1/14/2012 8:51:16 PM

Pasadena, Calif. — AMC Saturday confirmed it will bring back its Emmy Award-winning series Mad Men on March 25, one of nine original series the network will air in 2012, the network said during its TCA presentation Saturday.

The network will debut season five of Mad Men with an unprecedented two-hour season premiere episode, according to AMC senior vice president of original programming, production and digital content Joel Stillerman.

The network also announced Breaking Bad will return in third quarter, while the second season of The Killing will debut April 1 with a two-hour premiere episode.

Stillerman addressed criticism of AMC's handling of the show's first season finale which did not reveal the main killer after a season-long buildup. He said the network wanted to remain loyal to the Danish version of series Forbrydelsen, which itself did not reveal the main killer until the second season.

"We clearly didn't manage expectations," he said, adding that that killer will be revealed during the show's second season finale.

The shows will join the already announced Feb. 12 launch of the second half of The Walking Dead's sophomore season. Stillerman said the network has upped the number of episodes for the recently greenlit third season of the zombie-themed series to 16 from 13.

Among the new nonfiction series premiering on the network in 2012 is Comic Men, a six-part series that follows the antics of owners and workers in a New Jersey-based comic book shop; and The Pitch, a docu-series that follows two ad agencies as they make their business pitches.