The third series premiere of Mad Men, the critically lauded drama about the 1960s Madison Avenue advertising industry, has drawn a record audience of nearly 3 million viewers on US cable network AMC.
Sunday night's season three premiere of the show attracted 2.8 million viewers, a 34% leap compared with the 2.1 million for last year's series two launch on AMC and Mad Men's largest US audience to date. The second series averaged 1.5 million viewers.
AMC also said that its own create-your-own Mad Men avatar has been downloaded 485,000 times. Mad Men is broadcast in the UK on BBC4.
The US version of Big Brother is experiencing what the entertainment trade magazine Variety called a "summer high" with 8.5 million viewers on Sunday night on CBS.
Sunday also marked the culmination of the US PGA Championship, which saw Tiger Woods uncharacteristically pipped in a cliffhanger finish by the 37-year-old Korean YE Yang after leading at the start of the final day .
The Woods effect on TV audiences was clear, with viewing up 150% on CBS compared with last year, when the world number one did not play, due to a knee injury.
According to Variety, Sunday's final round of the PGA Championship was the highest rating since 2002, when Rich Beem beat Woods.
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