Are Anger Management's Week Two Ratings a Worry for Lions Gate

When Anger Management debuted on FX two Thursday ago, it broke records for a cable comedy premiere. The show recieved a lot of press and hype thanks to it being Charlie Sheen's first show since his well publicized departure from Two and a Half Men on CBS. I also wrote about the show on Seeking Alpha in an article entitled, "Lions Gate and News Corporation Winning With Charlie Sheen".

In its first week on the FX channel, Anger Management premiered two episodes with 5.47 million (9PM) and 5.74 million (9:30PM) viewers. Last week, the show suffered declining numbers in its second week. Thursday's episode had "only" 3.37 million viewers, suffering a drop of over 35%. The show did however...
score big once again with the coveted advertiser demographic 18-49 year olds. In the coveted age group, the show was seen by 44% more people than the debut week.

So what do these numbers mean for Lions Gate, the company that owns Anger Management? Well, Lions Gate has already ordered a second season of the show about an anger therapist, played by Charlie Sheen. The company also has a pending deal for 90 episodes if certain ratings milestones are released. The milestones are not public information, but I can't imagine that they are record breaking. The premiere episode will not count in the milestone numbers, so Lions Gate needs to hope rates increase or at a minimum stop dropping week to week. After two weeks there is no need to panic, besides the show is already going international.

A new deal was signed with Lions Gate for ther rights to Anger Management in England. Comedy Central UK will air the show in Autumn of 2012, after securing the rights from Lions Gate. This deal now marks a list of countries that have already bought into Charlie Sheen and his "winning" ratings numbers. Comedy Central UK also has the rights to Two and a Half Men episodes in its country.

Other countries and territories who have rights to Anger Management are:

• Canada
• Germany
• Latin America
• Scandanavia
• Benelux (Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg)
• Australia
• New Zealand
• Poland

Time will tell if Anger Management is renewed for all 90 episodes. The show airs on FX Channel on Thursdays at 9PM. There is no need for Lions Gate investors to panic as the company's main bread and butter is movies. The television segment is growing its share and Anger Management is a big bonus if it could hit the huge 90 episode guarantee.