The return of AMC's Breaking Bad on Sunday night delivered a series high 5.9 million viewers, representing a staggering 102 percent jump from last summer's Season 5 premiere.

As mind-bobbling as that leap is, it's nothing when you compare last night's return to the January 2008 series premiere, which attracted a modest 1.41 million viewers. The critically acclaimed drama steadily built on that audience, drawing 2.58 million in its Season 4 opener in 2011.Breaking Bad was followed by the cable network's new crime drama Low Winter Sun, which bowed to solid 2.5 million viewers, and the new talk show Talking Bad with 1.2 million.