The new season will kick off at 10 p.m. ET Sunday, Aug. 16, with an episode that features limited commercial interruptions. The cable channel will run a marathon of season two on Monday, Aug. 10, and both seasons will also be available on demand over the summer.

The show began production in early May, at which time Twitter-fueled rumors of an Aug. 16 premiere date surfaced. Jared Harris (”Fringe,” “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”) has joined the cast as Sterling Cooper’s financial officer, but as has been the case throughout the show’s run, details about this season’s story lines are hard to come by.

Last season ended with Sterling Cooper about to merge with a British ad agency in 1962. Whether the story picks up from that point or jumps ahead in time, as happened between the first and second seasons, remains to be seen.

The show’s core cast, including Jon Hamm, John Slattery, Elisabeth Moss, January Jones and Christina Hendricks, should all be back for the new season.

Maddicts know that summer means two things: The return of the series and Emmy nominations. Recent articles in publications such as the Hollywood Reporter, USA Today, Entertainment Weekly and the LA Times tackled the two topics:

• Entertainment Weekly’s Michael Ausiello conjures up his dream roster of Emmy nominees: Christina Hendricks in the supporting actress race; January Jones and Elisabeth Moss in the lead category. As for best drama, Ausiello has hopes for both Mad Men and Breaking Bad.

• The LA Times canvassed the stars of Mad Men and asked them to select their favorite scene from Season 2. Interestingly, Christina Hendricks, Vincent Kartheiser, Jon Hamm and Elisabeth Moss all went with the same one.

CONGRATS CHRISTINA, MAD MEN, & AMC!

The show picked up PROGRAM OF THE YEAR & OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN DRAMA!

Best Supporting Actress (Drama)

* Connie Britton (Friday Night Lights): Episode 8. When her character realizes she isn’t going to be getting her new dream home. Excitement. Desperation. Resignation. All in three minutes. She deserves her own category.
* Ginnifer Goodwin (Big Love): It’d be easy to overlook her sunny character as mere comic relief. Easy and wrong.
* Katherine Heigl (Grey’s Anatomy): Though the cancer arc tested my patience, damned if she didn’t sell the material like her life depended on it. (Memo to Shonda Rhimes: As such, please don’t kill her off.)
* Christina Hendricks (Mad Men): If it takes a strong woman to show her soft side, this one’s Hercules in heels. Hers is my favorite Mad Men character by far.
* Alison Pill (In Treatment): As a young cancer patient purging her soul, she was part sad, part inspiring, all perfection.
* CCH Pounder (The Shield): She fought two evil foes (lupus, Mackey) with fierce determination. If Mackey was this show’s driving force, Claudette was its secret weapon.   
* Chloe Sevigny (Big Love): The sneakier her character got, the more I wanted to give her a hug. Oh, and an Emmy!

I can’t agree more with what he says about Christina and I can’t wait to upload all of the Mad men caps - I’m really getting into this show!

She’ll probably want to do her own introductory post for you all.  So make her feel Welcome, loads of additions are coming.  It takes awhile sometimes to work my way around the sites but Christina is on Top Priority.

 HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHRISTINA

We here at CHO would like to wish Christina the best on this joyous day.

Here are a couple of previews of what I’ve uploaded.

Visit the Christina Hendricks Online Image Gallery today.