Mad Men series return draws only 72,000 The series five opener of Mad Men on Sky Atlantic drew an average of only 72,000 viewers last night, according to overnight figures. The disappointing ratings reflected a 50 per cent audience fall between the first (98,000) and second (45,000) episode of the double bill, entitled A Little Kiss. Returning to TV screens after a break of nearly a year and a half since its last outing, Mad Men - which is imported from American TV network AMC - was airing on Sky Atlantic for the first time, after running for its first four series in the UK on BBC Four. The ratings last night fare unfavourably against previous UK figures for Mad Men on BBC Four, where it averaged 355,000 viewers for its series four opener in September 2010, and a highest figure of 370,000 at the start of series three in January 2010. Last night's figures were not remarkable for Sky Atlantic either - the satellite channel's highest rating show since its launch in February of last year is Game of Thrones, which peaked with 823,000 viewers in its first series. However, a spokeswoman from Sky Atlantic said that last night's Mad Men viewing figures were up on previous series' among households with Sky supbscriptions, and added that the overnight figures do not include other ways of watching the show such as the network's Sky Anytime service. Meanwhile in the US, where series five started on Sunday, figures for the season opener on the AMC network were up slightly from previous series, drawing 3.5 million viewers - the highest for the show in the US to date, up from 2.9 million for the fourth series premiere. But these figures still fell well short of other new programming on the same network - the second series of The Walking Dead premiered to 8.1 million people. Nonetheless, Mad Men has always earned more impressive critical praise than viewing figures, having collected fifteen Emmys and four Golden Globes for its first four series - despite never rising above 3 million viewers in a country where American Idol drew 18.4 million last week.