FX Renews ‘The Americans’ For Second Season

FX has renewed its new Cold War drama series The Americans for a second seasons after just four episodes.

Starring Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys as two sleeper KGB spies posing as Americans in suburban Washington, D.C. in the early 1980s, The Americans has been picked up for a 13-episode order for its second season.

FX president John Landgraf said in a statement:

“The Americans has quickly established itself as a key part FX’s acclaimed drama line-up. Executive Producers Joe Weisberg, Joel Fields and Graham Yost and their collaborators are telling riveting and deeply emotional stories and the performances of Keri Russell, Matthew Rhys, Noah Emmerich and the entire cast are simply outstanding. The show is truly worthy of its widespread critical acclaim and we are confident that its quality will continue to yield a robust and passionate audience.”

According to E! Online, The Americans premiered to 3.22 million viewers, making it the most watched debut of any FX series. Factoring in the Live+7 numbers, the first episode received 5.11 million viewers. The second episode pulled in 3.11 million viewers with the Live+3 data, a number that will most likely increase significantly once the Live+7 data is counted.

By comparison, the first season of American Horror Story premiered to 3.18 viewers, based on Live+7 data, making it the most-viewed series premiere on FX in 2011. The series premiere of the first installment of American Horror Story also marked the No.1 all-time among FX series premieres in the Women 18-49 demographic and the Women 18-34 demographic.

There are nine episodes remaining in The Americans‘ first season. The season finale is scheduled to air May 1.