AMC’s The Prisoner Marred by Bad Reviews

AMC’s miniseries remake of the classic U.K. series The Prisoner got off to a solid start with 2.2 million viewers (1.7 household rating) during its two-hour debut Sunday evening. The number is only slightly off the season-average pace of AMC’s signature series, the Emmy-winning Mad Men, which averaged 2.3 million viewers. Yet before AMC could break out the champagne, the series took a sever dip to less than 1 million viewers for its second night. That’s a 56% drop.

Starring James Caviezel and Ian McKellen, The Prisoner represents the first series gestated under AMC’s new creative team, which is headed by Joel Stillerman.

The show has been a critical disaster for the cable channel whose shows are known to showcase high quality shows including Breaking Bad. If there were hopes of turning the mini-series into a weekly drama, those chances are now nonexistent.