Tackling the 2016 Presidential Election proved to be a little less popular than the mystery that surrounded the premiere of Roanoke. The seventh season premiere of American Horror Story was down year to year.
With 3.93 million viewers and a 2.02 rating among adults 18-49 on September 5, the latest installment of the Ryan Murphy- and Brad Falchuk -created series premiered down significantly from last year’s season opener. In overall sets of eyeballs watching the politically drenched Cult, there was a 24% drop from the September 14, 2016 premiere of Roanoke. Among the key demo, the Tuesday installment topped cable and was the second highest-rated original on all of TV. Even with that glory, Cult declined a hard 29% among 18-49s from the Wednesday Roanoke debut of 2016.
In fact, the Cult opener is the least-watched AHS debut since the 3.85 million who tuned in for the Asylum premiere on October 17, 2012. The least-watched AHS debut ever was the Murder House Season 1 premiere on October 5, 2011, which drew 3.18 million. However, while not apples to apples, the Cult opener did perform noticeably better than Roanoke’s closer of November 16 last year (2.45 million viewers, 1.3 rating).
To put a positive take on this, the numbers are still very solid for cable and the show already secured another season renewal months ago. This is also a series in its seventh season so FX should still be happy with these results.
