‘American Horror Story: Hotel’ premiere ratings beat everything on network TV beyond ‘Empire’

We thought that the premiere ratings for “American Horror Story: Hotel” would be great, but at the same time, it was easy to be skeptical on whether or not the show would just shatter ratings records across the boards. Lady Gaga is not the commercial draw she was one or two years ago, and the end of “Freak Show” last season was not exactly well-received. Many of the shows in the anthology tend to start off really big, and then lose a lot of their viewership over time as either Halloween ends or more and more people start to get fed up with the story.

This time around, the “Hotel” premiere fared pretty successfully on its way to a 3.0 rating in the key 18-49 demographic, which makes it the #2 scripted show on the night behind only “Empire” on Fox. This is the third-strongest premiere in the franchise history; both “Coven” and “Freak Show” started with a 3.1, but that is not so significant a different to have people worrying.

With this show, the true test is longevity, and it will be a massive win for FX if even two-thirds of this audience tunes in on average the rest of the season. We do think that this was the strongest premiere for a season since “Asylum,” with a variety of great characters and crazy twists. Sure, there are some moments of pure insanity that we nor anyone else probably understands completely, but as a whole, the show’s got some great stuff going on for now.

Tonight, we’re going to be doing our first edition of the official “American Horror Story: Hotel” CarterMatt Podcast! Come back overnight for that.

Also, you can sign up here in the event you want to get some other TV news on just about everything we cover, sent right to you via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: FX.)