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In this photo released by AMC, creator Matthew Weiner, left, talks with actress Jessica Pare on the set of the TV series, "Mad Men." Weiner, as the auteur of the landmark drama series, voices both resolve and wonderment at his task of bringing "Mad Men" in for a landing. His goal, he says, is not to wallop the audience with a grand parting shot, but something more gently profound: "to leave the characters in a place where they're going to be in viewers' imaginations forever." The final season of "Mad Men" begins Sunday, April 13, 2014, at 10 p.m. EDT on AMC. (AP Photo/AMC, Jamie Trueblood) Image Credit: AP

Advertising drama Mad Men, facing a night of stiff competition on cable television, drew 2.3 million viewers to the premiere of its seventh and final season, network AMC said on Monday.

Sunday’s hour long episode was unable to match the 3.4 million that watched its sixth season premiere last year, according to data compiled by Nielsen and released by AMC.

It was the fewest people to watch a season premiere episode of the 1960s advertising world drama starring Jon Hamm as the unstable ad man Don Draper since season two in 2008.

The episode faced off against MTV’s annual celebrity-filled movie awards show aimed at younger audiences.

Mad Men also aired right after HBO’s hourlong ratings juggernaut, fantasy epic Game of Thrones. The hour long HBO show averaged 6.3 million viewers on Sunday. Audience figures for the MTV Movie Awards have not been released, but the show averaged 3.8 million viewers last year.

Emmy-winning Mad Men averaged about 2.7 million same-day viewers in season six and 3.8 million overall viewers, including those who recorded the show and watched it later in the week.

Its seventh season will be split into two parts with the final seven episodes to air in spring 2015.