It’s a big day for renewals. Just a few hours after we learned New Girl is headed back to Fox next TV season, the network’s sister channel, FX, has signed on for more episodes of its period spy drama The Americans. The news should be reassuring for fans, as the program is not the network’s highest-rated program.
FX announced on Tuesday that The Americans will return for Season 4 in 2016. FX’s announcement indicates that 13 episodes will be produced for the new season, and FX President of Originally Programming Nick Grad said in a press release that the critical acclaim surrounding the series has led to the show’s renewal.
Remarkably, this season of The Americans has achieved even greater acclaim than that of its first two seasons. The series has cemented it status with critics as television’s best current drama and arguably the best show on TV, and we couldn’t agree more.
There are some vague spoilers in this paragraph. He’s right when his says The Americans has been really compelling this season. Last week’s episode, in fact, featured one of the most poignant moments I’ve ever seen on the series, when Elizabeth and Philip snuck into a repair facility and happened upon an older woman who had stayed late to work on some things, leading to one of the most startling conversations of the season. The couple’s familial problems have also been explored more in-depth, as their daughter, Paige, has become a full Christian while the Russians would prefer her to become a spy. All of this has made for engaging TV, and Grad actually mentions in his statement later on that he’d like to see The Americans stay on television for years to come.
The Americans might be highly rated, but it isn’t heavily watched. This season, ratings have been down and several episodes have seen less than a million viewers tune in for the show on the days it airs. Not very many scripted shows on major cable networks coming in under the one million total viewers mark live to see another season, but The Americans is special. The show does have a tidy DVR audience, averaging about 4 million total viewers when Live +7 ratings are considered. Plus, FX might feel it does the network some good to have a show on the air that gets a lot of good press.
Now that we know the show won’t be going the way of similar spy drama Allegiance this year, there is still plenty of opportunity to see the Jennings in action. Four episodes are still set to air this season, and if you are looking to catch up, Season 3 episodes are available with a cable subscription via The Americans’ site. You can catch The Americans on Wednesday nights at 10 p.m. ET, only on FX.
