“Freak Show,” the most recent installment of the “American Horror Story” anthology series, has become FX’s most-watched program ever when all viewing platforms are counted.
Based on the latest tally of linear and non-linear viewership, Nielsen estimates that roughly 12.64 million viewers on average watched “American Horror Story: Freak Show,” surpassing the previous year’s “Coven” installment (11.75 million) as well as the seventh and final season of “Sons of Anarchy” (11.69 million) as the network’s most popular series to date. The show generated 10.73 million total viewers in “live plus-7″ linear viewing and picked up an additional 1.91 million from VOD and streaming.
It was on-demand viewership that enabled “Freak Show” to set the network record, as VOD accounted for a full 12% of its total — the highest percentage among any FX program to date.
The next chapter, “American Horror Story: Hotel,” bows in October. The 13-episode season will include many veterans from previous installments, including Sarah Paulson, Kathy Bates, Evan Peters, Angela Bassett, Wes Bentley, Chloe Sevigny and Matt Bomer. They will be joined by newcomers Lady Gaga and Cheyenne Jackson.
The franchise from Ryan Murphy is produced by Twentieth Century Fox Television.
