‘Better Call Saul,’ ‘Mad Men’ Get Premiere Dates
Ahead of its Saturday morning presentation at the Television Critics Association’s winter press tour, AMC announced premiere dates for Breaking Bad spinoff Better Call Saul, Mad Men and its new dramas, while renewing The Walking Dead companion Talking Dead for a fifth season.
Better Call Saul, which focuses on the evolution of Bob Odenkirk’s Saul Goodman before he became Walter White’s attorney, will debut in November. (A specific date has not yet been determined.)
The first half of Mad Men’s final season will bow Sunday, April 13 at 10 p.m., one week after the series debut of Revolutionary War drama Turn, which will get a 90-minute premiere starting at 9 p.m. on April 6.
Fellow freshman series Halt and Catch Fire, which centers on the personal computing era in the early 1980s, will launch in the summer at a specific date to be determined later. Western Hell on Wheels will also return later in the summer.
On the unscripted side, Game of Arms will premiere Tuesday, Feb. 25 at 10 p.m. followed by the May returns of Small Town Security and Freakshow.
Meanwhile, the Chris Hardwick-hosted talk show The Talking Dead has, unsurprisingly, been renewed for a fifth season after ending the first half of its fourth season with a series high among total viewers. (AMC renewed The Walking Dead for a fifth season last year and Hardwick earlier this week told critics that he’d host the series for as long as AMC would have him.) The Walking Dead — and Talking Dead — will again launch their seasons in October, with a formal date likely to be announced at Comic-Con.
“We are extremely excited about the 2014 lineup,” AMC president and GM Charlie Collier said. “Both the returning and new series reflect our commitment to serving passionate audiences with compelling, character-driven storytelling.”