The Sked: Cable Ratings Thursday June 28: Charlie Sheen Scores

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FX scored big last night with the premiere of Anger Management, Charlie Sheen’s return to series television after leaving Two and a Half Men.  The premiere averaged a 2.1 rating with Adults 18-49 at 9 pm, and a second episode actually built to a 2.3 rating at 9:30.  The two episodes will be among the highest rated shows on cable for the week (probably only behind True Blood on HBO) and the highest rated program on any network last night.

The season premiere of Wilfred at 10:00 declined to about half of Anger Management‘s audience (-48% to 1.5 million Adults 18-49 0r a 1.2 rating) and the season premiere of Louie at 10:30 dropped another 39% from Wilfred (to 911,000 Adults 18-49 or a 0.7 rating), but both shows are still up significantly over last year’s premieres.

At 11 pm, BrandX with Russell Brand declined 25% from the Louie lead-in (to 687,000 Adults 18-49 or a 0.5 rating), but FX says it’s satisfied that the Russell Brand comedy improved the time period by over 30%.

For comparison, Comedy Central’s 11 pm duo of The Daily Show (0.7 rating) and Colbert Report (0.6) edged BrandX, while Conan on TBS did a typically lackluster 0.5 in the hour.

The NBA Draft on ESPN, which had all the suspense of a CBS procedural drama, scored a 1.4 rating at 7:30.  USA’s dramas Burn Notice at 9 pm (1.2) and Suits at 10 pm (1.3) were the other fairly high-rated cable shows of the night.  Suits is a nice story for USA, ticking up one tenth each week (1.1 premiere, 1.2, 1.3).