‘The Americans’ season 3: FX boss still sees longevity in series, hopes for Emmy love

FX held its panel at the TCA Winter Press Tour on Sunday, and when it comes to talking about the upcoming third season of “The Americans,” network guru John Landgraf made one thing clear: Despite some weaker live ratings, he does not see the show getting canceled at any point in the near future. As a matter of fact, he feels like the show has “at least five” seasons that could comprise its run.

As a caveat, Landgraf did insist that some of this will depend on “how good it remains,” and the ratings probably do need to maintain a certain level. He admitted to feeling somewhat bad still over canceling “The Bridge,” but commented that its decline in the numbers eventually reached the point where it was no longer feasible to keep the show around anymore.

The biggest thing, per Landgraf, that could help the show at this point would be if the Emmys finally decided to “take notice” of the show, and the performances of Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys. So far, this has been a series that has been consistently great, but somehow has been just a rung too low on the ladder for the Emmys to give it some love. It is really hard sometimes to get them to pay attention to a lower-rated cable show, provided that it is not on a premium network like HBO or Showtime. We’re honestly not sure if they would even love “Breaking Bad” or “Mad Men” as much if they debuted today. Their success can be in part attributed to AMC being totally new in scripted programming at the time.

The premiere of “The Americans” will air on January 28.