FX Comedies on the Rise: 'Louie' Premieres Strong, 'Wilfred' Sets Record

Just as AMC is becoming the place to go on cable for dramas ("Mad Men," "Breaking Bad," "The Killing"), so is FX becoming the place to go for comedy. The network's own "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" has become a certified cable hit, and new animated series "Archer" has completed two seasons and is up for yet another.

Two of the network's newer comedies, "Louie" and "Wilfred," premiered Thursday night. "Louie" performed well, pulling in 1.6 million in its second-season premiere, with one million of those viewers in the adults 18-49 demo. That's an increase of about 40% for "Louie" over its first-season premiere.

But the real story was the brand-new show "Wilfred," which aired its series premiered Thursday night at 10pm. The show drew in 2.6 million viewers, 1.6 of them in the demo. That makes it the most-watched premiere for a comedy series ever on FX, giving the network another strong series foothold.

The show was probably helped by the fact that it stars a big name in Elijah Wood. Wood plays a despondent young man whose life begins to pick up after he meets the cute girl next door. Things become a bit strange, though, when he meets her dog, whom he sees as a man in a dog suit. While everyone else sees the dog as a dog, Wood's character has full-on conversations with it. The show is adapted from an Australian show of the same name, and stars Jason Gann, who starred in the original as well.

The show might also have been helped by this little publicity stunt last month: