William H. Macy's comedy that truly redefines the dysfunctional family came back to stellar ratings this week as "Shameless" continues to make its mark on Showtime.

More than 2 million subscribers tuned in to see the second season premiere of "Shameless" this week -- and there could be even more since it was a free preview weekend for the premium cable channel. That was up not only by 37 percent over its Season 1 finale last year, but up 61 percent from its series premiere, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

When you add DVR and encores, that number jumps to just under 3.8 million.

That gave a strong boost to Showtime's new series which debuted immediately afterward, "House of Lies" with Don Cheadle and Kristen Bell, premiered with 1 million viewers in its primary timeslot, and then added nearly 1.8 million more in encores and timeshifters.

Both are very strong for premium cable, which doesn't necessarily depend on the number of viewers for a particular program, but instead on the kind of buzz they create. That's because buzz can be translated into paid subscribers, and if those tuning in to the free weekend liked what they saw, it could easily mean more paying customers for Showtime, and longer life for shows like "Shameless" and "House of Lies."

One show that didn't shine as brightly as the other two was David Duchovny's "Californication." That show, now in its fifth season, fell to just a little over 1 million viewers for the night. Once again, numbers like that only show the people tuning in, but does not necessarily reflect created buzz that would help generate subscribers -- the true lifeblood of premium cable shows.

In "House of Lies," Cheadle plays Marty Kaan, a management consultant who knows no boundaries in getting clients the information they need. The series is based on the book by Martin Kihn, a satire writer who has also written the spoof "Asshole: How I Got Rich and Happy By Not Giving A Damn About Anyone and How You Can, Too."

"Shameless" is from famed "The West Wing" executive producer John Wells, based on the British series of the same name created by Paul Abbott. The series was originally put together for HBO, but it moved to Showtime in 2009, before the first season aired.

The show originally featured Allison Janney, a "West Wing" alum, playing Sheila, who is afraid to move out of her house. However, when Showtime picked up the show for series, Janney was replaced by Joan Cusack.