Mad Men's Fifth Season Will Return in 2012

There's good news and there's bad news for Mad Men fans.

AMC has officially given the green light to a fifth season of the adman drama, the network announced Tuesday. But ongoing negotiations with series creator Matthew Weiner will push the show's return to early 2012.


AMC made the announcement as a Deadline.com report surfaced about Weiner's prolonged renegotiations with Lionsgate, which produces Mad Men. The latest sticking points in the proposed contract — which a source tells TVGuide.com would pay Weiner roughly $30 million over three years, making him the highest-paid showrunner on basic cable — involve cost-cutting measures and an increase in advertising during the show's running time.

According to Deadline, AMC and Lionsgate have asked Weiner to integrate product placement into the show and to cut two minutes from the show's running time to accommodate more commercials. (The latter was also an issue during Weiner's renegotiations two years ago.)

Further, Weiner has been asked to trim the members of the cast to save money, according to Deadline. (A source tells TVGuide.com that all the principal cast members will return; any casting changes will involve some actors appearing in fewer episodes.)

Mad Men's typical episode runs about 48 minutes, considerably longer than a typical network drama and a couple minutes more than most basic-cable dramas.

AMC had no comment beyond the announced renewal.

Despite the lack of Mad Men, AMC has a busy year planned. The network premieres its new murder mystery drama The Killing Sunday, Breaking Bad returns in July and zombie drama The Walking Dead is shooting for a fall return. The network has yet to schedule Hell on Wheels, a post-Civil War drama that it ordered in December.

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