The Lil Dicky show is killing it online.
Almost no one watches FXX’s Dave when it first airs on cable. Quite a few people tune in afterward, however — so many that it could end up as the most-watched debut season of an FX Networks comedy. The series, co-created by and starring Dave Burd, aka Lil Dicky, gets a huge lift from delayed viewing and streaming. Since the show’s March 4 launch, the five episodes to air are averaging 4.8 million viewers — more than 22 times the on-air average of just 217,000 viewers.
Put another way, Dave gets about 95 percent of its audience after its first showing on FXX. Shows routinely double or even triple their audiences with delayed viewing and streaming, but that much growth is rare. Multiplatform figures are cumulative for the five weeks Dave has aired and come from FX Networks.
The Disney-owned network says Dave is currently the second most-watched inaugural season for a comedy on FX or FXX. The top spot is currently held by the first season of Atlanta in 2016, which averaged 5.2 million viewers over the course of its run. That show, however, started with a significantly higher baseline, averaging about 888,000 same-day viewers.
Dave has also experienced a wave of ratings growth in the past two weeks, coinciding with overall TV usage rising during coronavirus stay-home orders. FX says the show’s average viewership has grown by 1.2 million viewers since March 20, although the linear audience for the March 25 episode (210,000) was only about 11,000 more than the previous week. FX Networks has yet to make a decision on a second season for Dave.
This article originally appeared on The Hollywood Reporter.