Sex&Drugs&Rock&Roll hit the schedule just a few months ago to little fanfare. While ratings haven’t been wildly high on the new FX comedy, the network sent the news down the pipeline this morning that Sex&Drugs&Rock&Rock will, in fact, be returning for Season 2. Just like Season 1, 10 episodes will be produced for the new season.
The Denis Leary-led show also features a rockstar cast, including John Corbett, Elaine Hendrix and more. However, Sex&Drugs&Rock&Roll only did middlingly well with the critics when the show first premiered and while you would think Leary would have an insta-audience of former Rescue Me fans, a lot of them didn’t turn up for the actor’s latest series. It’s not that Sex&Drugs&Rock&Roll has done horribly over at the network—the press release even notes the new comedy was the most-watched scripted comedy among dudes in the 18-49 demographic this summer, but in Live+ same day ratings, the show was doing well under a million total viewers per episode.
What’s most interesting about the Sex&Drugs&Rock&Roll renewal is that it comes just a couple of months after FX ultimately opted to cancel its other freshman comedy, The Comedians, which starred high profile actors Josh Gad and Billy Crystal. The mockumentary-style comedy also didn’t do all that well in the ratings despite a high-profile cast, and FX unceremoniously opted to rip off the Bandaid shortly after the first season finished airing.
Of course Sex&Drugs&Rock&Roll’s humor is a little less uncomfortable than The Comedians. Plus, it has one thing going for it that the Billy Crystal starrer didn’t: major DVR ratings. According to FX, while the initial numbers for the rock-based comedy aren’t all that impressive, a lot of people are still watching the show, albeit at a later date. Live+7 day ratings, for instance, have the show increasing 81% in the 18-49 demographic and 83% overall. So, a decent faction of people seem to be watching Leary’s new series, just not on the night they initially air, an increasing trend with television programs.
FX is currently in a bit of a transitional period. An early adopter of original programming on cable, FX (and its newer sister programming on FXX) was once a ratings juggernaut, but some of its bigger shows, from Justified to Sons of Anarchy, have ended. The League is on its way out, and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia is getting old. Some of the newer programming the network has brought in—stuff like The Americans or The Strain, have not been huge ratings bringers.
Here’s hoping the network is able to grab more eyeballs when Sex&Drugs&Rock&Roll returns for Season 2. It’ll still be awhile, as FX doesn’t expect the show to return until sometime in 2016. For now, here’s what the network has coming up this fall.
