'Mad Men' season 6 will premiere in April

Jon Hamm will direct the second episode of "Mad Men"  season six.

Credit: AMC

Don Draper and the rest of "Mad Men" will be back on AMC on Sunday, April 7 at 9 p.m.

The Emmy-winning drama's sixth season will begin, like its fifth did, with a two-hour premiere, written by "Mad Men" creator Matthew Weiner, and directed by Scott Hornbacher. The remaining episodes will air at 10 p.m., starting with another one directed by star Jon Hamm.

This is a slightly later start than the fifth season, which began on March 25 last year, but it's the same basic spring window, after the first three seasons began in mid-late summer.

“To be able to continue exploring the stories of these characters for a sixth season is an amazing opportunity,” Weiner said in a statement. “We love mining this world and look forward to bringing the audience stories that we hope will continue to both surprise and entertain them.”

Weiner is famously tight-lipped about all plot and character details of the show — we don't know what role Elisabeth Moss will play as Peggy, for instance, though he's said that she'll still be part of the show — so that's about as much detail as you're going to get out of him between now and April.

'Mad Men' cast dresses up for season 6 promo pictures

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Alan Sepinwall
Sr. Editor, What's Alan Watching

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Alan Sepinwall has been reviewing television since the mid-'90s, first for Tony Soprano's hometown paper, The Star-Ledger, and now for HitFix. His new book, "The Revolution Was Televised," about the last 15 years of TV drama, is for sale at Amazon. He can be reached at sepinwall@hitfix.com