LOS ANGELES (thefutoncritic.com) -- FX's "The Riches" opened to a solid 3.8 million viewers on Tuesday, 2.5 million of which fell into the key adults 18-49 demographic.

In terms of FX's previous openers, "The Riches" edged out "Dirt" (3.7 million on 1/2/07) and "Nip/Tuck" (3.7 million on 7/22/03) but fell short of "The Shield" (4.8 million on 3/12/02), "Rescue Me" (4.1 million on 7/21/04) and the short-lived "Over There" (4.1 million on 7/27/05).

Among adults 18-49 however, "The Riches'" 2.5 million marked FX's best series opener since "The Shield" (3.0 million on 3/12/02).

In addition, the series built from its lead-in "The Day After Tomorrow" (3.1 million total viewers, 1.7 million 18-49) while an encore at 11:10/10:10c also fared well, delivering 1.4 million total viewers and nearly 800,000 in the demo.

Overall, "The Riches" was the fourth most-watched program on cable last week, behind USA's two editions of "WWE Raw" - 10:00 (6.3 million) and 9:00 (5.2 million) - and Nickelodeon's broadcast of "Scooby-Doo 2" (4.5 million).

Also landing in the top 15: the latest installment of VH1's "I Love New York" (3.7 million viewers, #5) as well as repeats of USA's "Law & Order: SVU" (Thursday at 9:00, 3.7 million, #6), Adult Swim's "Family Guy" (Sunday at 10:30, 3.3 million, #9) and USA's "Law & Order: CI" (Thursday at 10:00, 3.0 million, #14).

Outside the top 15, Bravo's "The Real Housewives of Orange County" claimed a series-high 1.5 million viewers on Tuesday while FX's "Dirt" posted a less-than-stellar 1.7 million viewers that same night.

And finally over on Sci Fi, "The Dresden Files" (1.35 household rating, 957,000 adults 18-49) and "Battlestar Galactica" (1.35 household rating, 1,100,000 adults 18-49) posted gains for the second week in a row.