Now in its sixth series, Mad Men has always been a bit of an anomaly – winning multiple Emmy Awards and having a major influence on fashion and popular culture, despite ever-decreasing audience numbers and scheduling on niche stations (BBC Three and, latterly, Sky Atlantic).
Last week’s episode, The Flood, was set on the day of Martin Luther King’s assassination on 4th April 1968, with much of the episode reflecting the events and mood of the time, alongside each character’s reaction to events as they unfolded. This episode was watched by 2.4 million viewers in the US – in the UK, the series has averaged around 200,000 viewers so far.
However, despite the modest audience size (there are 115m households in the US), the effect of the episode on popular culture is much more notable. The Google Trends chart below shows searches over time for ‘Martin Luther King’ across the US. The first notable peak is on 4th April – the 45th anniversary of Dr King’s death. The second spike is on the 29th April – the day after ‘The Flood’ first aired.
This 29th April spike in searches peaks at the same level as the 4th April and falls away more gradually (possibly a reflection of time-shifted and catch up viewing affecting search trends across the following days).
That a programme with just 2.4 million US viewers can generate as many searches for such a well-known historical figure as the anniversary of his death (with all the publicity this generates) shows just how large an influence Mad Men has. More broadly, it shows how the most influential programmes are not always those with the biggest audience.