Before You Watch "Mad Men" on Sunday, You'll Watch "Mad Men" on Sunday -- On the Web

On Sunday night, you are going to watch TV, because there are a ton of great shows to watch on Sunday nights.

But first you’re going to watch TV on the Web.

So says Google, which says it sees a spike in people looking for older episodes of hit dramas every Sunday — presumably because they want to catch up before the new episodes of “Mad Men,” or “Game of Thrones,” or “The Good Wife” (or all of them!) air that night.

All things being equal, the TV Industrial Complex would generally prefer that people watch these shows when they’re fresh, because that’s when they get advertising credit for those views. But since it’s 2014, the TV guys have learned to live with catch-up viewing — and if it leads to more viewing of new shows, as Netflix and other streamers argue, then they really can’t complain at all.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

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