Christina Hendricks (L) and Geoffrey Arend Photo: CFP

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 hour long ratings juggernaut, fantasy epic Game of Thrones.

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