• Sunday night’s all right for drama: Through the 2000s, an era of TV viewers had plenty of reason to associate Sunday evening with high-caliber dramatic series, beginning with The Sopranos from 1999-2007.

• The Wire fought the good fight on Sundays during its 5-season run on HBO from 2002-2008, even if a significant portion of its viewers caught up with the show on DVD well after its original, low-rated run.

• A combination of low ratings and behind the scenes disputes ended Deadwood’s run on HBO after just three seasons, but for all three it kept the Sabbath decidedly un-holy from 2006-2008.

• Forever the Pepsi to HBO’s Coke, Showtime followed the Sunday night formula when making its own push into original programming. Dexter (which was critically acclaimed, once upon a time) has been making Sunday bloody since 2006.

• Mad Men’s first season ran on the advertiser’s favorite night of the week, Thursday. But when AMC realized it had a critical (if not commercial) smash on its hands, the network shifted its flagship drama to Sunday beginning with season two in 2008.

• Before Mad Men staked its Sunday claim, AMC debuted its fellow critical favorite Breaking Bad on that night in early 2008. Since then, shows like Rubicon, The Walking Dead, and The Killing have occupied that piece of prime time real estate, with mixed degrees of success.

• After a brief fallow period, HBO has attempted to re-establish its dominance of Sunday night drama – and Monday morning conversation – with Boardwalk Empire in 2010 and Game Of Thrones in 2011.