The TV Column: Premiere of NBC comedy ‘Go On’ gets a post-Olympics win

More than 16 million of the 30 million-ish people who were still watching NBC’s London Olympics about 11 p.m. Wednesday stuck around to see the ad-free unveiling of the network’s new Matthew Perry comedy, “Go On.”

For comparison’s sake: The biggest crowd that NBC persuaded to watch the unveiling of any of its new comedies last fall was the 11 million who caught the much-ballyhooed Lorne Michaels comedy “Up All Night.”

(Jordin Althaus/NBC) - Matthew Perry, center, stars with Sarah Baker and Brett Gelman in “Go On,” whose NBC premiere drew big numbers.

The “Go On” premiere — in which in which “Friends” alum Perry plays a grieving widower sportscaster in mandated group therapy (yes, really, it’s a comedy) — scored a bigger audience than any new comedy launch last fall except for CBS’s “2 Broke Girls.”

“2 Broke Girls,” you’ll recall, premiered right after CBS killed off Charlie Sheen’s character and trotted out a sometimes nekkid Ashton Kutcher on “Two and a Half Men.” “2BG” averaged just less than 19 million viewers that Monday night in September.

Among 18- to 49-year-old viewers who are NBC’s ad sales currency, “Go On” logged a 5.6 rating. (That means 5.6 percent of the country’s audience in that age bracket watched.)

Last fall, the best NBC comedy launch rating in that age bracket was also “Up All Night,” whose 3.7 rating was considered a solid unveiling.

Maybe the best news for “Go On” — and NBC — is that the episode’s second half retained 84 percent of the first half’s audience, despite the late hour and the very large Olympics lead-in. Which suggests that a large chunk of the people who stuck around liked what they saw.

NBC suits have given “Go On” one of their network’s very best time slots this fall: Tuesday at 9 p.m., immediately following the singing competition series “The Voice.”

Because the late-night preview of “Go On” aired without commercials, Nielsen will not include it in NBC’s average for the night, the week or the TV season.

KGB comes to Falls Church

FX has greenlit a series about KGB agents posing as travel agents who live in the Washington area during the Reagan administration.

“The Americans” stars Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys as the agents, who are known stateside as Phillip and Elizabeth Jennings. Their arranged marriage has produced two children; Mom and Dad run a travel agency in Falls Church.

Noah Emmerich plays their new neighbor, Stan, who — in one of those unfortunate coincidences — is an FBI agent.

When we last met on this subject, last December, we reported that “The Americans” was created by Joe Weisberg; he worked at the CIA for about 3 ¹ / ₂ years, after which he wrote the novel “An Ordinary Spy.”

Weisberg’s TV credits include TNT’s sci-fi drama “Falling Skies” and FX’s “Damages.”

Graham Yost, exec producer of FX’s “Justified,” is also an exec producer on the new drama.

In making Thursday’s announcement, FX President John Landgraf claimed that these character perspectives have “never [been] explored on a U.S. television series,” adding: “We’re equally excited to welcome Graham Yost’s talented young Padawan Joe Weisberg as Creator/Showrunner” (a “padawan” being a Jedi apprentice).

Now that FX has greenlit “The Americans” to series, this Jedi apprentice will take the inevitable “notes” — not just from the network and the studio, but also from the CIA.