Charlie Sheen’s new scripted comedy Anger Management is off to a nice start. FX revealed the results of the one-hour series premiere early this afternoon in which they boast about the show’s freshly-minted record of most-watched scripted comedy debut in cable history. 5.47 million viewers tuned in which is on par with an episode of True Blood. 2.65 million of those are between the ages of 18 and 49 which validates the notion that the series’ leading man is still a huge draw for that particular demographic.
Here is the press release put out by the basic cable network.
Last night’s series debut of Anger Management (9P) was the most-watched scripted comedy primetime series premiere in cable history in delivery of Adults 18-49 (2.65 million), and Total Viewers (5.47 million, excluding children’s programming). It also ranks as the most-watched series premiere in FX history in Total Viewers. Episode 2 of Anger Management (9:30P) grew to 5.74 million Total Viewers, and the demo also grew in the second half hour to 2.89 million A18-49.
The Season 2 premiere of Wilfred and Season 3 premiere of Louie posted significant growth over their prior season averages – (Wilfred +71% and Louie +55% in Total Viewers). Last night’s season premieres for both of those series were the second highest-rated episodes in their history and will likely be their highest-rated episodes ever when Live+7 data is available in three weeks.
And the series premiere of FX’s new late night comedy BrandX with Russell Brand got off to a good start in the 11P time slot with 1.1 million Total Viewers and 687,000 Adults 18-49, which marked respective increases of +32% and +38% vs. FX time-period average.
(Source: The Nielsen Company, Live+Same Day, Fast Nationals, subject to change)