‘Atlanta’ Premiere Leaps In Live + 3 – Update

Updated: FX’s Atlanta launch Live+3 stats are in:  the total audience delivery for the series premiere telecast and encore airings was 3 million total viewers and 1.9 million adults 18-49.

The L+3 lift of Atlanta’s premiere in the demo (72%) and overall audience (68%), while one of the highest among FX comedy series premieres, came in just shy of January’s Baskets unveiling, in the demo (80%) and total viewers (69%). Baskets’ premiere remains tops among basic cable primetime comedy series premiere since 2014 in both adults 18-49 and total viewers on a L+3 basis.

Previous, September 8, PM: The launch of FX’s genre-defying Atlanta, starring its creator Donald Glover, got off to a strong start, early ratings indicate, generating nearly 1.1M viewers at 10 PM Tuesday, after which a second episode logged 960K viewers. Among 18-49-year-olds, the new series, set in the world of local hip-hop, copped a crowd of 680K and 618K.

These are Live + Same Day stats, which FX dismisses as showing only a sliver of a show’s audience in today’s TV universe.

That said, the initial stats bode well compared to the network’s January premiere of Baskets, co-created by and starring Zach Galifianakis, which logged Live + Same Day 1.04M viewers and 252K in the demo – both of which Atlanta outlapped.

And when Baskets‘ Live +3 numbers came in, it showed the largest three-day lift of any FX comedy series ever in the demo, as well as an overall audience grown to 1.75M, which made it basic cable’s most watched comedy series premier since 2014. Then, Live + 7 stats came in, and Baskets bagged an average of 944,000 adults 18-49 and 1.5 million total viewers during its first three episodes, to remain the most-watched new scripted comedy series on cable in 2016.