‘Louie’ Season 4 Premiere Bests Season 3 Average, Falls Shy of ‘Anger Management’-Fueled Season 3 Start

After a 19-month hiatus, the Season 4 premiere of FX comedy Louie came in 19% above the show’s Season 3 average (941,000 vs. 791,000) and up 26% in adults 18-49 (635,000 vs. 505,000). FX argued that placing “any major significance” on season-to-season premiere episodes comparisons “makes little sense”  because the Season 3 premiere of Louie got “overly inflated” by the heavily promoted premiere night of Anger Management that night — June 28, 2012. FX’s launch of Charlie Sheen starrer Anger Management nabbed a whopping 5.6 million viewers in the 9 PM hour, powering Wilfred to 2.53 million, followed by the Louie season kickoff, which clocked 1.43 million viewers.

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For comparison sake, last night’s Season 4 debut of Louie outperformed its half-hour lead-in audience —  9:30 PM’s  Horrible Bosses — by 16% (941,000 vs. 809,000) in total viewers.  The second Louie episode of the new season grew its demo crowd by 3% (651,000 vs. 635,000) compared with the first episode and retained 97% of the overall audience (910,000 vs. 941,000).

Compared with its Season 3 average, Season 4 of Louie is up 17% in overall audience (925,000 vs 791,000) and 27% in the demo (643,000 vs. 505,000).