How many seasons does Breaking Bad have?

How to get close to this number

American cable dramas of that era ran four to six seasons, short enough to keep the writing tight and long enough to justify the production. A prestige drama that ended deliberately rather than being cancelled sits squarely in that band, which puts the answer at five.

The split final season is the detail worth catching, and it recurs across prestige television. The last season was broadcast in two separately aired halves, which means the count of seasons and the count of broadcast blocks differ — and some sources treat the halves as two seasons. Any season count for a show that did this needs the convention specified.

The contrast with network sitcoms elsewhere on this site is instructive: nine, ten and twelve seasons for shows on broadcast networks against five here. Cable dramas are commissioned in shorter runs with far fewer episodes each, so a five-season cable show and a five-season network show contain completely different amounts of television.