Better Call Saul: Inside AMC’s ‘Bittersweet’ Farewell

Mad Men helped define AMC as a premium cable force in 2007, but the original series that followed a year later—Breaking Bad—had an even greater long-term impact on the network. After Breaking Bad ended its acclaimed run in 2013 as one of TV’s all-time greatest series, it passed the baton to prequel show Better Call Saul, which debuted in 2015 and focused on the origins of Saul Goodman, the slick Breaking Bad lawyer played by Bob Odenkirk. “It’s impossible to overstate the importance of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul to this company,” said Dan McDermott, president entertainment and AMC Studios at AMC Networks. For a decade and a half, the two shows burnished AMC’s reputation as the home of top-shelf content that could hold its own with anything on HBO, FX or Netflix. Saul co-creators Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould “are always thinking about how to be honest and authentic in their storytelling, and yet also engage and surprise the audience,” McDermott said. That leads to “a superior experience for the viewer. To have these two shows be such a significant part of the AMC brand is just terrific, and it’s really emboldening.” However, all good things must come to an end, and that includes Better Call Saul, which will conclude its six-season run with a series finale on Aug. 15. It’s a “bittersweet” moment for AMC, McDermott said. “If I could keep this show on our platforms for the next four to five years, I would, but all these shows come to a point where there’s a natural and organic moment for them to conclude.” Gould agreed, explaining that “you just don’t want to overstay your welcome” and it would be “painful” to see the audience lose interest if the show went on too long. But that’s not happening yet. Saul is going out with a bang, both on linear (averaging 2.2 million viewers per episode in Nielsen’s live-plus-3 ratings, it’s the No. 3 cable drama this season in adults 18-49 and 25-54, behind only Yellowstone and The Walking Dead) and streaming (it’s the No. 1 subscriber acquisition driver in streamer AMC+ history and the platform’s second-most-watched season ever, after The Walking Dead). Marketers have been just as excited about Saul’s final season, too. “We’ve had huge interest in these final episodes,” with CPMs at an all-time high for the series, said Kim Kelleher, president, commercial revenue and partnerships at AMC Networks. “We’re seeing demand that goes beyond the show into the halo as well,” including a trio of Saul-themed digital original short-form series from The Content Studio, AMC Networks’ branded content studio, which lets marketers “be part of the fanfare and the larger moment.” While Saul’s ratings may not measure up to its broadcast peers, it’s the kind of premium quality show with “a highly engaged viewer that is not only watching it but probably rewatching it and going down a rabbit hole online,” said Maureen Bosetti, chief investment officer at media agency Initiative. The series appeals to a “more educated, upscale type of audience, and that attracts specific clients,” including some brands, such as financial or advertisers with “a more upscale target that doesn’t normally buy television. These are the types of shows those advertisers want to be associated with." Plus, a big series finale for a critical darling like Better Call Saul is part of the “cultural calendar” that buyers keep, featuring “cultural moments” for marketers to build campaign flights around, Bosetti said. “As we try to figure out how do we scale an audience, we can use these moments to do that—and those moments are harder and harder to find.” The long goodbye AMC split Saul’s final 13-episode season into two parts, with seven episodes airing during April and May, and the six-episode second half returning on July 11. The network has long divided the final seasons of its biggest shows like Breaking Bad and Mad Men (The Walking Dead’s farewell was segmented into three parts), but the Saul split was necessitated by production delays related to the pandemic and by Odenkirk’s heart attack during filming in July 2021. Gould had not intended for the season to be divided in two, but McDermott and his team realized that the shocking cliffhanger moment in Episode 7 “would be a great place to leave people for a few weeks” and help get episodes on-air earlier following a two-year hiatus after Season 5, Gould said. Given the show’s intricate postproduction schedule, “we couldn't have aired them all at once and still started at the same point [in April]. But I'm very happy with the way it worked out.” Especially because the April premiere allowed the show to meet the eligibility window for this year’s Emmys. Better Call Saul received seven nominations, including for Outstanding Drama Series, Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series and acting nods for stars Odenkirk and Rhea Seehorn. The split across two quarters was beneficial for marketers as well “because it gives you more opportunity,” Bosetti said. “You can maybe have different messaging across the campaign.” Advertisers Are Calling Saul • AMC Networks also saw strong demand for the three Saul-themed digital original short-form series from The Content Studio, AMC Networks’ branded content studio: animated Slippin’ Jimmy, Saul’s Employee Training videos and Emmy-nominated Cooper’s Bar, starring Seehorn. Better Call Saul’s final episodes have been a big draw for both long-time and first-time marketers on the series. • Eleven advertisers have been partners for all six seasons. • Two dozen new advertisers bought inventory on the show this season across a broad range of categories, including rival TV and streaming outlets. • CPMs were at an all-time high for the series. End of a basic cable era? Saul’s conclusion seems like the end of an era for premium shows on basic cable. NBCUniversal and Warner Bros. Discovery have largely stopped programming scripted originals on cable networks like TNT and USA, shifting them all to their respective streaming platforms, while FX has deemphasized the importance of its linear offering, with its full originals slate now available on Hulu. Even AMC Networks keeps some shows exclusive to its AMC+ streamer, which debuted in October 2020. “We're in an industry that's constantly changing,” Gould said. “But the thing that doesn’t change is that audiences are hungry and want good, quality work, work that’s maybe even a little challenging sometimes. And my hope is that there continues to be a way to make things like that.” AMC, which is also saying goodbye to The Walking Dead this fall, says the network is ready for life after both signature shows. The company has built up “the most robust pipeline of programming we’ve ever had,” McDermott said. That includes multiple series based on novels by Anne Rice (starting with Interview With the Vampire, debuting Oct. 2) and two new dramas coming in 2023 built around Better Call Saul stars: Odenkirk’s Straight Man (based on Richard Russo’s novel) and The Driver (featuring Giancarlo Esposito, based on a U.K. limited series). “We’re seeing these finales as the bridge to the next” generation of shows, Kelleher said. “People are excited, and we’re seeing that on the marketing and advertising fronts as well. They follow the viewers—and this is where the viewers are going.” That said, AMC would love another Breaking Bad spinoff. “I light a candle every night, hoping that there’s going to be more shows in this universe,” said McDermott, who is leaving that decision up to Gilligan and Gould. “I'm coming off of a lot of work in this world, and I would like to try something else for a bit,” Gould said. “But I would never say never.” First, Gould has to put the final touches on Saul’s ending. He already pulled off one successful series finale with Breaking Bad, a feat that “just made it scarier” when it came to crafting Saul’s conclusion, he said. “Trying to equal that is daunting.” Eventually, he realized, “this is a very different show from Breaking Bad, and it has a very different ending. … Hopefully, the world will love it as much as we do.”

Programming & Performance

Inside AMC’s ‘Bittersweet’ Farewell to Better Call Saul

Marketers flock to the finale as the network prepares to end its Breaking Bad franchise—for now

Jason Lynch

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Jason Lynch