Buoyed by strong audience and critical response, rather than somewhat lackluster ratings, FX has renewed “The Americans” for a second season.
FX announced on Thursday (February 21) that it has picked up a 13-episode second season for “The Americans,” a renewal that comes only four episodes into the period drama’s first season.
Set in 1981, “The Americans” stars Matthew Rhys and Keri Russell as a pair of KBG agents deep undercover in the United States. Noah Emmerich plays the FBI agent who just happens to live across the street.
“‘The Americans has quickly established itself as a key part FX”s acclaimed drama line-up,” blurbs FX President John Landgraf. “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.”
Adds series creator Weisberg, “We”re very grateful to John Landgraf, Nick Grad, Eric Schrier and everyone at FX for their unwavering support of our show. We”re thrilled to be able to continue writing stories for such an incredibly talented cast led by Keri, Matthew and Noah. This has been an amazing experience for me and it couldn”t have happened without the tireless efforts of our cast and crew. We appreciate the support of the audience and we believe they have a lot to look forward to the rest of this season.”
“The Americans” premiered last month with FX’s must-watched series debut, with 5.11 million total viewers in Live+7 figures. After a steep decline in its second week and another drop in its third airing, the show’s fourth episode had a small rebound. FX notes that the first three episodes have added 44 percent, 58 percent and 63 percent in time-shifted viewing so that “The Americans” has averaged 3.63 million viewers, including 1.87 million in the key 18-49 demographic, on a Live+3 basis for those three episodes.
FX will marathon the first five “Americans” episodes on Friday, March 1. The first season finale is set for May 1.