Breaking Bad Breaks Records with 10.3 Million Viewers, Australia Tops Illegal Downloads of Final Episode

Source: Youtube/IMdbtv

The last episode of the hit U.S. television series Breaking Bad proved to be a milestone for the show as it attracted 10.3 million viewers. Despite the record-breaking figures released on Sept 30, there were also 500,000 illegal downloads of the series finale, with Australia coming out as the top country with the most number of illegal downloads.

Breaking Bad, first shown in 2008, is about a brilliant chemistry teacher named Walter White who turned into a drug kingpin after learning he had lung cancer and worried about his family's future.

The final episode marked the end of its fifth and final season after the show won the Emmys for Best Drama. The Emmys is the U.S. television's version of the Oscars for films.

The highly anticipated final episode attracted 3.7 million more viewers than the previous episode. The second to the last episode had 6.6 million viewers. The figures were taken from Nielsen ratings.

The Walking Dead had the biggest season finale with 12.4 million viewers watching. Industry journal, Variety, reported that Breaking Bad had more than twice the number of viewers for Mad Men. The show only drew 3.5 million when it aired its first episode of its fifth season.

While AMC, the cable channel broadcasting Breaking Bad, will be happy with the record-breaking ratings, it will surely frown upon the number of people who has watched the series finale using pirated copies.

According to an online piracy Web site, Breaking Bad's final episode was downloaded over 500,000 within 12 hours since it was first aired. The biggest number of downloads came from Australia with 18 per cent, followed by the United States with 14.5 per cent. The UK had a 9.3 per cent share of illegal downloads, India with 5.7 per cent and Canada with 5.1 per cent.

The strong performance of Breaking Bad only indicates how the show has become a cultural phenomenon. The meth drama created by Vince Gilligan has drawn an average of one million viewers since its first episode on its first season was shown in 2008.

Fans of Breaking Bad were treated to an expanded one-hour show of Talking Bad, a post-show discussion with Vince Gilligan, which generated 4.4 million viewers.