'Breaking Bad' Creator Vince Gilligan Credits Piracy for Show's Popularity

Credit: Getty Images

Breaking Bad was never really all that big of a hit for AMC before its fifth and final season. For example, the AMC drama averaged only 1.9 million viewers for its fourth season, and that low number was actually considered an improvement over previous seasons. However, the show saw massive leaps in viewership by the time the series came to its conclusion, averaging roughly 6 million viewers during its final season, and closing out the series with a record-breaking 10.3 million viewers, a massive 443 percent increase in overall viewership.

So what was the reason for the increase? Creator Vince Gilligan believes piracy had a hand in the show's surge in popularity.

“I see that there’s two sides to this coin, if I’m being honest,” Gilligan said in an interview with the BBC.

“In some ways the illegal downloading has helped us, certainly, in terms of brand awareness,” he said. “The downside is a lot of folks who worked on the show would have made more money, myself included, if all those downloads had been legal.”

As Gilligan admits, piracy is “ultimately a problem and will continue to be a problem going forward,” Gilligan said. “Because we all need to eat. We all need to get paid.”

After the Sept. 29 series finale, the episode was downloaded more than 500,000 times within 12 hours of the first illegal upload of the episode appearing online.

However, Gilligan also credited Netflix for keeping the series going, stating that the subscription service, which offers full seasons of Breaking Bad, allowed viewers to get hooked on, or catch up with, the show in time for new seasons.

“I think Netflix kept us on the air,” Gilligan told reporters after Breaking Bad won the Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series last month. “Not only are we standing up here (with the Emmy), I don’t think our show would have even lasted beyond season two.”

Via: Variety / Entertainment Weekly