Mad Men returned with its season 6 premiere Sunday night on AMC and nearly matched last year's ratings with 3.4 million viewers (season 5's 3.5 million was a series high). With AMC's Walking Dead now the most popular show on television I question if Mad Men is surviving on critical acclaim alone.

By most premiere standards, ratings in the multi-millions are usually a good sign for any television show. A&E's new hit Bates Motel, which follows the disturbing origins of an adolescent Norman Bates, earned 3 million in it's season 1 premiere, and earned an obvious second season renewal. FX's Justified is a hugely popular show and garnered 3.6 million viewers on its season 4 premiere.

Though Mad Men is always an award show darling, racking up trophies for impeccable costume design and writing, it seems the hype reaches further than the actual demand.

It's ironic because Mad Men helped put AMC on the map (with a little help from Breaking Bad of course). Extending its new found resources to shows like Walking Dead, it seems like Mad Men has been eclipsed by the very machine it helped create.

Even better The Walking Dead probably had a big influence on the 3.4 million that tuned in to the Mad Men season 6 premiere. For The Walking Dead season 3 conclusion, AMC aggressively promoted the return of Mad Men to the 12.4 million that tuned in to the zombie hit.

Tune in to Mad Men season 6 Sundays at 9/8c on AMC.