The excitement stemming from last week’s record-setting “Anger Management” debut is not completely evaporated, but ratings for Thursday’s new episode certainly call into question whether the show will be a difference maker over the long term.
Thursday’s new episode of the Charlie Sheen vehicle, which aired on FX at 9:30PM, delivered a 1.3 adults 18-49 rating with 3.4 million viewers. Though it beat everything on cable that was not a “Family Guy” re-run or “Swamp People,” it fell a whopping 43% in the demo and 41% with total viewers. Both are shocking levels of drop-off.
While “Anger Management” would still be a successful cable comedy if it held in this ratings range, this is hardly performing at the level of upside one would have believed possible for Charlie Sheen’s return to television; even last week’s premiere, in the grand scheme of things, probably should have done better than it did.
And given the disappointing reactions to the series’ content, it is not implausible–and, in fact, quite possible–that the ratings will continue to decline for at least another week.
— Over on MTV, “Snooki & JWoww” slightly improved to a 1.0 adults 18-49 rating with 2.0 million viewers. The performance is still very disappointing based on the popularity of “Jersey Shore” and the supposed popularity of Snooki, but by stabilizing in its third week, it at least appears that the show can avoid falling into a total ratings abyss.
