American Horror Story season 8: Will crossover premise help show’s ratings?

In the event that you did not hear, American Horror Story season 8 is now poised to be a crossover between two of the most-popular seasons in the franchise history in Murder House and Coven. With that in mind, it’s not altogether hard to see why the writers and FX would want to go in this direction.

We don’t think that this season is a ratings ploy by any means — it’s a fun creative idea that Ryan Murphy has had for a while — but we do certainly think that there could be some positive ratings implications that come from it. The franchise certainly could benefit from a little bump! Season 7, otherwise known as American Horror Story: Cult, generated a 1.1 rating in the 18-49 demographic on average. While that is far and away better than the majority of the other shows on cable, it’s still the lowest rating we’ve seen for this franchise to date. The majority of the seasons of the show have seen the live viewing averages trickle down, with one exception being Roanoke, which improved off of the disappointing Hotel.

Just in looking at the numbers for Coven alone, it’s clear why FX would want to do this crossover — that season averaged a 2.2 in the demo! That’s a better rating than you see for most network shows in 2018. While we don’t expect anywhere near the same number for season 8 (it’s a different era now with more viewing options), we do think that this is probably something folks behind the scenes are striving for. If season 8 just improves versus last season, we think that will be enough to have executives celebrating.

The goal with season 8 commercially is to bring back some viewers who watched the first and third seasons and are interested in more. In theory, this idea should work, but the one of the reasons why it may not is simply because you’re really relying on nostalgia. This is not the sort of premise that is going to bring in new viewers. Instead, you are reliant on the ones you already had.

Related – Be sure to get some other news regarding season 8

Do you think that American Horror Story season 8, especially with a crossover premise, will post better ratings than the series has as of late? Share below!

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