FX Renews ‘American Horror Story’

FX has renewed anthology series American Horror Story for a fifth season, the network announced Monday. The renewal comes in the wake of the show’s Oct. 8 fourth season premiere, which was the most watched show in the network’s history.

In Nielsen live-plus-three ratings, the American Horror Story: Freak Show premiere drew 10 million total viewers, 6.54 million adults 18-49 and 4.0 million adults 18-34 — besting the network’s previous record holder in all categories, the Sept. 9 season premiere of Sons of Anarchy.

The American Horror Story anthology has had the highest growth trajectory of any show in FX history, not to mention an unprecedented track record of success in awards recognition,” said John Landgraf, CEO, FX Networks and FX Productions.

FX announced Oct. 7 that it had given a 10-episode order to a true-crime series from AHS creators Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuck, to be titled American Crime Story, scheduled to premiere in 2015. The first season will tell the story of the O.J. Simpson murder trial.

American Horror Story: Freak Show is produced by FX Productions and executive produced by Murphy, Falchuk, Dante Di Loreto, Tim Minear, Jennifer Salt, James Wong and Brad Buecker.