'Mad Men' Season 5 Delayed Until 2012

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- The popular AMC drama "Mad Men" won't be returning to television until early 2012 because of a dispute between the channel and the show's creator, Matthew Weiner.

AMC recently offered Weiner a new $30 million, three-season deal, The New York Times reported, citing people familiar with the matter, after his contract expired at the end of the show's fourth season last October.

As a part of the pending agreement, the channel proposed to shorten each episode by two minutes, add more product placement in the show and drastically cut the cast budget.

Weiner refused to accept the terms of the new deal, claiming the changes would make Mad Men a "different show."

"I don't understand why, with all of the success of the show, they suddenly need to change it," he said in an interview with the Times on Tuesday. "All I want to do is continue to make my show, and make it in the way I want to, with the people I want to make it with."

Cable network AMC confirmed that the delay was "due to ongoing, key non-cast negotiations" with creator and executive producer Weiner.

"While we are getting a later start than in years past due to ongoing, key noncast negotiations, Mad Men will be back for a fifth season in early 2012," AMC said in a statement on Tuesday.

The three-time Emmy Award-winning drama, which stars actor Jon Hamm as New York advertising executive Don Draper during the 1960s, is entering its fifth season on AMC.

AMC's parent company, Rainbow Media, is currently in the process of being spun off by its owner, Cablevision(CVC). The new venture is expected to be completed this summer and will be renamed AMC Networks.

--Written by Theresa McCabe in Boston.

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