'Rescue Me' Picked Up For Second Season

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'Rescue Me' Picked Up For Second Season

DON KAPLAN

Courtesy of The New York Post

August 26, 2004 -- After setting the ratings charts ablaze, Denis Leary's cable drama "Rescue Me" has been picked up for a second season. 

FX has renewed the show about New York City firemen, asking for at least 13 additional episodes. The series is filmed on location around New York City and draws about 9.5 million viewers over the course of its five airings each week. 

It averages about 2 million viewers ages 18-49 — the key audience prized by advertisers — in its Wednesday 10 p.m. slot. That's turned out to be the highest total in that demographic for a new basic cable show this year. 

In "Rescue Me," Leary plays grizzled fireman Tommy Gavin, an alcoholic father of three who's in the middle of a divorce and is tortured by the memories of fire victims and friends he's lost in the line of duty. 

Much of the show deals with how the firemen in Gavin's firehouse are able to deal with danger on a daily basis, but have trouble handling their own private lives. 

Although Leary is an executive producer on the show, "Rescue Me" was inspired by Terry Quinn, a firefighter who splits his time between consulting for the show and working out of his Upper West Side firehouse. 

Many of the show's main characters are loosely based on some of Quinn's longtime FDNY cronies — although they didn't know it until just after the show's debut last month, Quinn recently told The Post.