The horror anthology TV series “American Crime Story” has been doing excellently well in the rating game and also among fans and critics that the FX network recently made a confident move of renewing the show not just for its next season but for a total of three seasons.
Immediately after airing its Season 6 last year, FX announced that it has renewed the show for a seventh season to air this year.
However, at the start of this year, the network did the show and its fans better by announcing that it has decided to renew the show for two more seasons on top of its previous Season 7 renewal. This means that “American Horror Story” is good to go until 2019 for its ninth season.
The recent announcement actually saved the network the trouble of having to write new press releases around the same time next year and the year after, reports Collider.
A secret anthology
“American Horror Story” debuted back in 2011 as a secret anthology, leading viewers to believe they were watching a regular, serialized horror show from creator and executive producer Ryan Murphy and co-creator Brad Falchuk.
When the entire main cast was killed off in the penultimate episode and the finale wrapped things up in a nice creepy bow, FX said ‘surprise!’ and announced the show’s true format to the world.
The formula has proven to be a success, as Murphy reinvents the series year after year. While he initially maintained that each season was wholly separate aside from the same actors playing new roles, Murphy and company decided back during Season 4 entitled “Freak Show” that all of the seasons were connected after all, and subsequent seasons have played up that connection with increasing frequency.
But the show’s sixth season, entitled “Roanoke,” took a different path as FX declined to reveal the show’s subtitle, premise, or even cast until its first episode premiered.
The found-footage-infused season was something of a mixed bag and possibly one of the worst seasons to date on the heels of Season 5’s “Hotel”, which was one of its best.
But fans should not fear as the show gets entirely reinvented once more for Season 7.
Not as secretive as Season 6
Murphy has already admitted that Season 7 will not be as secretive as Season 6, with the title and premise to be announced this spring.
He also added that Season 7 shall feature the return of several Season 4 characters. There’s also a future season planned that shall reportedly cross over with Season 1’s “Murder House” and Season 2’s “Coven,” as well as a secret season that’s being written by a single writer.
So the renewal was a no-brainer as Murphy seems to have ideas for “American Horror Story” up way before it was renewed by FX.
Critics are saying that early renewals of a show are no longer new in TV as networks are often eager to announce additional seasons of successful programs as a way to encourage viewers to remain committed and get those on the fence tuning in as well.
It is a matter of giving viewers a reason to be as invested as the network is. That is important especially when new programs come into play and seek to get an audience.
Early renewals work when it comes to TV series that have been around for a while like “American Horror Story.”
Fresh from a visually-revamped Season 6 that took the show’s normally over-the-top and lush production values and stripped them down to a mix of found-footage horror and a sardonic take on the recent resurgence in the true crime subgenre, the long-running horror anthology series maintained its foothold as a ratings winner and thus was easily renewed for Season 7.