American Horror Story Draws Biggest Premiere Ratings in FX’s History

Is horror now the safest bet in television? By all accounts, American Horror Story is a hot mess: it’s glaringly derivative; the writing and editing seems to have been done by someone in desperate need of Adderall. The performances tend to fall on the hammy side, yet taken as a whole, the show is irresistibly entertaining.

The final numbers are in, and American Horror Story‘s premiere episode is officially the most watched premiere in FX’s history, beating out previous title-holder, The Shield. But that’s not all. TVLine quotes FX president John Landgraf: “While the ratings for the premiere episode were outstanding, it’s even more impressive that the third episode delivered higher numbers than the premiere.” Considered alongside recent news of The Walking Dead shattering ratings records at AMC and being swiftly renewed for a third season, it seems that something is afoot.

Likewise, The Walking Dead is certainly not AMC’s strongest show, yet a show like Mad Men is not drawing the kind of numbers the zombies are. The difference with Dead is that even a weak show on AMC is better than most television so it hasn’t been panned the way American Horror Story was.

Is there any precedent that explains why horor is doing so well on television? Shows like The Twilight Zone, Tales from the Darkside, and Alfred Hitchcock Presents told standalone stories week to week so they don’t work in an apples to apples comparison. Shows like Buffy don’t either–while technically existing in the universe of horror, I’d argue Buffy has more in common with other genres. I can think of other examples of shows that borrow bits or chunks from horror yet exist more as hybrid genres or genres in horror drag.

Will NBC’s Grimm, which premieres this Friday, benefit from the popularity of darker television fare? ABC’s competing show, Once Upon A Time, drew big numbers for its premiere, but Grimm is an apparently darker, more horror-inflected show. It better be, given its namesake. What say you, Crassfolk?

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