The Riches and IFL score big on Monday

The numbers are in and The Riches is off to a nice start for FX. The 3.8 million viewers more than doubled the best Monday night at 10 the network has ever had. That was also slightly better than the premieres of Nip/Tuck and Dirt, but fell short of The Shield, Rescue Me, and Over There. In the 18-49 demo, the news was even better. The Riches ranks as the number two premiere, trailing only The Shield.

Of course, it remains to be seen how things hold up moving forward. I thought the premiere was very good, but it didn't match the advertising that led up to it. The show had a much darker, more serious tone than those commercials where we saw Wayne and Dahlia walking down the stairs pondering their new life. I'll be interested to see if that turned off any of those 3.8 million viewers.

In other ratings news, MyNet kicked off their new schedule with the International Fight League. The network is moving away from the telenovela format to a new schedule that includes two movie nights and IFL Mondays. So far, so good, as the mixed martial arts program saw a 61% increase in viewers over the sweeps average for the primetime soaps. I watched a bit of it, but the whole team concept didn't do a lot for me. If I am going to watch MMA, I'd rather watch the UFC on Spike.