Two days after AMC announced that it would split up the final season of the hit show Mad Men into two seasons, creator Matthew Weiner attended The Hollywood Reporter's star-studded Emmy nominees party, where he spoke for the first time about the big change to his show's seventh season.
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"It's a strategy from the network and I was told about it," he told THR at the West Hollywood event on Thursday night.
While the decision may not have been in his hands, Weiner told THR he's making the best of it.
"I found a way to work with it. That's all I can say. I think it's an opportunity," he added.
However, Weiner is very convinced that he won't be following in the footsteps of AMC's other shows The Walking Dead and Breaking Bad, which are both getting spin-offs on the cable network.
"There's no chance," he told THR with a smile. "No judgment against anybody else -- but this is it. This is the story. When it's done, it's done."
Weiner's show will air the first seven episodes, dubbed "The Beginning," in the spring of 2014 and the final seven, "The End of an Era," in spring 2015.
"Every season is a new story, and I don't want to get bored but I also don't want to let the audience down," said Weiner. "For me, I start over. And there's this kind of thing that happens with the audience every year where it's like they're very happy to see us back in the premiere and when the new story starts around episode two they start getting antsy and then they get with it by episode three when they see it's a new story."
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Weiner will once again attend the Emmys this Sunday, where his show is nominated for outstanding drama series. The show received 10 nominations this year.
Weiner told THR he used to have more superstitions and rituals ahead of the big show, but that he's calmed down over the years.
"It’s just a matter of calming down, getting excited to see everybody and for me, I feel so luck to get to go. It doesn’t happen to everybody," he said.
But he did tell THR he still has one tradition: "I take a bath on Sunday morning, no matter what. I don’t mean that I never bathe, but I actually take a bath in a bathtub.”
E-mail: Rebecca.Ford@thr.com
Twitter: @Beccamford
