JUSTIFIED SEIZES BIG RATINGS
Justified Scores Second-Highest Series Premiere Ever for FX
Critically Acclaimed Drama Delivers 4.16 Million Viewers and 1.42 Million Men 18-49
Marking Highest Delivery in Those Categories Since The Shield Premiere 3/12/2002
Second Highest Delivery of Men 18-49 Ever for a Basic Cable Scripted Series Premiere
Basic Cable's #1 Program Tuesday in Total Viewers, A18-49, M18-49, M18-34, A25-54 and M25-54
And Was TV's #1 Program in M18-49 and M18-34 in the 10 PM Time Period
LOS ANGELES, March 17, 2010 - FX's critically acclaimed new drama Justified got off to a great start Tuesday (10-11:10 PM, 3/16/10) as the series premiere episode posted 4.16 million Total Viewers and 2.04 million Adults 18-49. Justified recorded 1.42 million Men 18-49, which was the second-highest delivery in that demo ever for a scripted series premiere on basic cable.
Justified's delivery of Total Viewers and Men 18-49 ranks second all-time for an original series on FX just behind the Emmy(R) and Golden Globe(R) award-winning drama The Shield (4.83 million Total Viewers and 1.74 million Men 18-49; 3/12/02, which pre-dates DVR data).
Justified ranked #1 for the night in basic cable in Total Viewers, Adults 18-49, Men 18-49, Men 18-34 (694,000), Adults 25-54 (2.19 million), and Men 25-54 (1.42 million). Justified also ranked #1 in all of television in the 10 PM time period in delivery of Men 18-49 and Men 18-34, broadcast or cable.
The combination of Justified and its lead-in movie, Live Free or Die Hard, led FX to the top spot in basic cable prime (8-11 PM) in Adults 18-49 (1.33 million), Adults 18-34 (654,000) and Men 18-49 (902,000). The encore airing of the premiere episode (11:10 PM-12:23 AM) notched an additional 1.85 million total viewers and 1.01 million Adults 18-49.
Top Five FX Series Premieres (000s)
Total Viewers Adults 18-49 Men 18-49
The Shield (3/12/02) 4,827 The Shield 3,037 The Shield 1,739
Justified (3/16/10) 4,158 The Riches (3/12/07) 2,842 Justified 1,421
Rescue Me (7/21/04) 4,071 Rescue Me 2,516 Rescue Me 1,341
Over There (7/27/05) 4,062 Over There 2,385 Over There 1,325
Dirt (1/2/07) 3,744 Dirt 2,362 The Riches 1,309
(*Data prior to series premieres of 12/26/05 is based on Live viewing; post 12/27/05 data is Live+Same Day)
FX will run encores of the premiere episode of Justified on Friday, March 19 at 11pm e/p and on Sunday, March 21 at 11:30 pm e/p. Episode 2, "Riverbrook", airs next Tuesday, March 23 at 10pm e/p. Raylan hunts an escaped prisoner who is determined to reunite with his ex-wife�and his stashed fortune.
Source: The Nielsen Company, NTI as dated, Live+Same Day (000s) unless otherwise noted
Developed for television by Graham Yost and starring Timothy Olyphant , Justified (TV-MA) is based on the popular Elmore Leonard character "Deputy U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens" featured in several Leonard novels and his short story Fire in the Hole.
Olyphant stars in the lead role of Givens, a true-blue hero born and reared in the hill country of eastern Kentucky, who left at age 19 to become a U.S. Marshal. Now, years later, after shooting a gun thug in a Miami hotel and thereby incurring the wrath of his Marshals Service superiors, Raylan has been sent in punishment (and by fate?) to the one place to which he vowed he would never return - Kentucky. But, being back in Kentucky, Raylan will also have to confront a past crowded with enough skeletons to choke a graveyard.
The series co-stars Nick Searcy as Givens longtime friend and boss "Chief Deputy Art Mullen"; Jacob Pitts as "Deputy Marshal Tim Gutterson"; Erica Tazel as "Deputy Marshal Rachel Brooks"; Joelle Carter as "Ava Crowder," Boyd's sister-in-law; and Natalie Zea as Raylan's ex-wife "Winona Hawkins." Walton Goggins guest stars as "Boyd Crowder," who worked with Raylan in the coal mines as teenagers and has now chosen a criminal path.
Yost wrote the pilot and serves as Executive Producer/Writer on the series. Leonard is an Executive Producer on the series along with Sarah Timberman, Carl Beverly and Michael Dinner, who directed the pilot episode. Justified is produced by Sony Pictures Television and FX Productions.
FX is the flagship general entertainment basic cable network from Fox. Launched in June of 1994, FX is carried in more than 96 million homes. The diverse schedule includes a growing roster of critically acclaimed and award-winning original series, an established film library of acquired box-office hit movies, and an impressive lineup of acquired hit series.
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