The Bridge was off to a solid start on Wednesday night.
FX's new drama, kicking off with back-to-back airings of its 91-minute premiere, brought in a total of 4.12 million viewers for the night. That's just 2 percent shy of the gross premiere night audience The Americans brought in earlier this year.
At 10 p.m., Fast National returns from Nielsen have the first airing of The Bridge brought in 3.04 million viewers -- 1.16 million of them adults 18-49. An encore at 11:31 p.m. contributed to its nightly total.
The Americans, while opening against a lot more competition during the regular broadcast season, did not have to compete with the generally smaller summer TV audiences.
Like many cable networks, FX tends to fare especially well in time-shifted viewing. Gross viewership for the premiere of The Americans only attributed 32 percent of its 10 million total to the premiere telecast, with linear telecasts, DVR, video on demand and online viewership contributing the bulk.
FX has eight encore telecasts of The Bridge premiere slated for the coming month.
