FX Renews 'Wilfred', 'Louie' & 'Sunny', Inks $50 Million Deal With 'Sunny' Creators

FX has renewed three comedy series. Elijah Wood starrer Wilfred, which has become the highest-rated first-season comedy on the network with a cumulative 5 million viewers a week, has been picked up a second season of 13 episodes. Louie, which just landed an Emmy nomination for star Louis CK and has averaged 3 million viewers a week, has been renewed for a third season of 13 episodes. Meanwhile, veteran It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia has been renewed for two more seasons -- Seasons 8 and 9 -- to become the longest-running live-action comedy on basic cable. The network also has an option for a 10th season. Additionally, FX Prods has signed a three-year exclusive deal with RCG, the production company ofSunny masterminds Rob McElhenney, Charlie Day and Glenn Howerton. I hear the deal is worth $40 million-$50 million for all services. FX and FX Prods and RCG reinvented the production model for television comedies, embracing low-cost production and taking less money up front. In addition to Sunny, RCG is involved in the new CBS comedy series How To Be a Gentleman, created by and starring Sunny player David Hornsby, and has two comedy projects in the works: Fox's Living Loaded and FX's animated Townies. Overall, FX president and GM John Landgraf said the goal is to have five dramas and seven comedies on the air. The network has five comedies on now, all in FX's signature, lower-budget mold, and "we are going to add a couple more over time," he said. In the past several months, there has been "really strong focus on drama with pilots American Horror Story, Powers and Outlaw Country," Landgraf said. "We had never made three drama pilots simultaneously," he said. American Horror Story has already been picked up to series. The other two pilots have been completed, and Landgraf expects to make a decision on them within the next 2-3 months, with a pickup of one, both or none all possible. In other announcements, Rodgers Media and FX Networks have formed a joint venture to launch a new channel, FX Canada, in early November.