'Anger Management' Loses 40 Percent of Viewers in Second Week

FX

Following last week's back-to-back premiere outings for Charlie Sheen's Anger Management, the FX comedy settled into its regular time slot of 9:30 p.m. on Thursday night -- dropping more than 2 million viewers in the process.

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Among total viewers, the third episode of Anger Management dropped just north of 41 percent from last week's episode in the same time period. It brought in 3.37 million viewers after pulling 5.74 million in the same half-hour last Thursday.

The actor's Two and Half Men follow-up had nearly the same dip among adults 18-49. Last night's episode earned 1.71 million viewers in the target demographic, down from both last week's hauls of 2.89 million (9:30 p.m.) and 2.65 million (9 p.m.).

Although these numbers are the first indicators as to whether Anger Management might secure the 90-episode renewal at stake, per the arrangement with distributor Debmar-Mercury, it won't be until the end of this 10-episode run that FX can determine if the series meets its undisclosed ratings threshold. (Last week's heavily promoted two episodes will not play a role in the math.)