FX Renews 'American Horror Story' for Second Season

The drama from "Glee" co-creators Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk stands as the network's No. 1 premiere in the cabler's history.

11:09 AM PDT 10/31/2011 by Lesley Goldberg

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"American Horror Story"

Just in time for Halloween, FX announced it will continue to tell Glee co-creators Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk's American horror stories.

The male-skewing cable network has renewed American Horror Story for a second season.

Starring Friday Night Lights' Connie Britton and The Practice's Dylan McDermott, AHS stands as the network's No. 1 premiere in the 18-49, 18-34 and women 18-34 demographics when factoring in Live+7 ratings according to Nielsen.

The series, which co-stars Jessica Lange and Frances Conroy, opened strong for the network Oct. 5 with its original and encore airings collecting 5 million viewers.

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“It’s one thing to have the ambition and guts to reinvent a genre in a way that makes it captivatingly fresh for a broad audience -- it’s something else entirely to have the craft to back that ambition up,” said FX president and GM Jon Landgraf. “Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk have hit the trifecta with Nip/Tuck, Glee and now American Horror Story, which will be scaring FX’s viewers to death for many years to come.”

After a 14 percent dip during its second episode, the story about a family that moves into a haunted abode where they're tortured by spirits of the estate's former residents in a metaphor for marriage and infidelity, rebounded with its third and fourth airings, which both set series highs in topped the premiere in the advertiser-coveted adults 18-49 demo as well as adults 18-34.

Murphy and Falchuk split their time between Fox's Glee and AHS, with Murphy telling reporters ahead of the series' premiere that working on two shows has been "energizing."

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"If you love something, you make time for it," he said, noting the sound stages are right next to one another. "If that means you give up your weekends, you do it. And that's sort of the mood that we had and the ideology that we had as we approached doing these two shows at once."

Landgraf told reporters in August at the Television Critics Association's summer press tour that he had high hopes for the risky series, calling it a potentially "break through commercial piece of television that's going to be imitated widely if people find it."

Landgraf also expressed hope that the series run for multiple seasons, and assured the roomful of reporters that each season will have a beginning, middle and end.

In addition to Murphy and Falchuk, Dante Di Loreto executive produces the 20th Century Fox Television series.

AHS airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m. on FX; Glee airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. on Fox.

Email: Lesley.Goldberg@thr.com; Twitter: @Snoodit