TCA News: FX marks 2011 as best year, announces premiere dates for Justified, Anger Management, Archer

FX’s mix of drama, horror and comedy — Justified, American Horror Story and Wilfred — along with their returning series made 2011 a landmark year. The network grew their audience by double digits in almost all age groups.

“Let me repeat that,” FX president John Landgraf (pictured) said. “All of our returning series grew in every adult demo and in total viewers:  male, female, young, old, every category.”

Although Landgraf candidly shared “everything we do is a role of the dice, and sometimes it comes up the number you want, sometimes it doesn’t,” no one would argue that the network is certainly on a major hot streak, and the numbers prove it.

Americans are loving “Horror”
American Horror Story was the No. 1 new drama on basic cable in young adults and was the highest-rated first season of any FX drama in adults 18‑49 by a 49 percent margin. Landgraf said series creator, Ryan Murphy, is already looking to cast the next season. “He’s already in active conversations with new people. And also two or possibly three of the existing cast members, some series regulars as well as guest cast, may be continuing next year, although they would be playing entirely new roles.”

Wilfred’s no dog
On the comedy side, Wilfred, which stars Elijah Wood and Jason Gann similarly became the network’s highest-rated first season of an FX comedy in adults 18‑49 by a 45 percent margin.

Sons of Anarchy outperforms
Sons put up the highest ratings ever in FX’s history and averaged more than 9 million viewers a week, inclusive of repeats, DVR and VOD. The Season 4 premiere was the most‑watched single telecast in the network’s history.

It’s Still Sunny In Philly
Even in it’s 7thseason, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia put up FX’s highest ratings ever for a comedy series in adults 18‑49, averaging 4.6 million weekly viewers.

And there’s no signs of the dice cooling.

Here’s what’s planned for the first half of the year.
• Archer
returns on Thursday, Jan. 18 at 10pm with 10 new episodes

• The new animated comedy Unsupervised will debut after Archer on Thursdays at 10:30pm

• Friday nights will become the home to the Ultimate Fighting Championship for 32 weeks, when Ultimate Fighter Live, a new competition sports reality series, debuts on March 9

• Russell Brand’s new series Strangely Uplifting will debut in April in a late-night slot

• Charlie Sheen’s Anger Management is set for June.

• Season 3 of Louie is slated for June

• Season 2 of Wilfred will begin in June