‘American Horror Story: Freak Show’ episode 7 preview: How long will ‘Test of Strength’ be?

Good news for all of you traditionalists that like to see “American Horror Story: Freak Show” run closer to an hour-long run time: That will happen a little bit more with Wednesday night’s new episode “Test of Strength.”

Per our new information, this potentially Dell-heavy episode is going to run for around 65 minutes, so be sure to check out DVRs accordingly. This is the shortest episode of the season so far right along with the second part of “Edward Mordrake,” and should be over early enough to not interrupt any normal schedules.

To be fair, we understand more and more why some shows like this one and “Sons of Anarchy” run a little long. Most broadcast TV shows now run around 42 minutes, while premium cable shows typically go between 50 and 56. “American Horror Story” wants to think of itself more as a premium cable show, so that’s why we tend to see episodes that go around 46-54 minutes or so without commercials included. Really, the only two that have run longer than that have been the first two episodes of the season. Remember here that FX runs a good many commercials during the show.

For the series itself moving forward, their biggest challenge may just be getting us to care about this Dell character, who we’ve found mostly predictable and overly angry so far this season. As the promo here suggests, the character (played by Michael Chiklis) could do something that is so beyond redeeming that no one is interested anymore in having him around. The problem that may come with this is trying to find a way to actually get him shipped off.

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