Second series of The Americans for FX

FX has commissioned a second run of their critically-acclaimed drama The Americans for a further thirteen episodes.

“The Americans has quickly established itself as a key part FX’s acclaimed drama line-up,” said John Landgraf, President and General Manager, FX Networks. “Executive Producers Joe Weisberg, Joel Fields and Graham Yost and their collaborators are telling riveting and deeply emotional stories and the performances of Keri Russell, Matthew Rhys, Noah Emmerich and the entire cast are simply outstanding. The show is truly worthy of its widespread critical acclaim and we are confident that its quality will continue to yield a robust and passionate audience.”

The renewal comes just four episodes into The Americans’ first season on the broadcaster. There are nine episodes remaining in the current season yet to air with the season finale schedule to air on May 1st.

Created by Joe Weisberg and starring Keri Russell, Matthew Rhys and Noah Emmerich, the series premiere episode of The Americans was the most-watched debut of any FX series ever with 5.11 million Viewers. Through three weeks, time-shifted viewing of The Americans is the highest of any first-year series on FX with weekly gains of +44%, +58% and +63% respectively.

“We’re very grateful to John Landgraf, Nick Grad, Eric Schrier and everyone at FX for their unwavering support of our show,” said Weisberg. “We’re thrilled to be able to continue writing stories for such an incredibly talented cast led by Keri, Matthew and Noah. This has been an amazing experience for me and it couldn’t have happened without the tireless efforts of our cast and crew. We appreciate the support of the audience and we believe they have a lot to look forward to the rest of this season.”

Set in 1981 just after Ronald Reagan is elected president, The Americans, starring Keri Russell, Matthew Rhys and Noah Emmerich, is a drama series about the complex marriage of two KGB spies posing as Americans in suburban Washington D.C. Created and Executive Produced by Joe Weisberg, a former CIA agent who went on to become an accomplished author, Joel Fields and Graham Yost are also executive producers, along with Amblin Television heads Justin Falvey and Darryl Frank.

In celebration of the series renewal, FX will air a marathon of The Americans, showing the first five episodes back-to-back on Friday, March 1st.

“Working with Joe Weisberg, Graham Yost, Josh Brand, Adam Arkin, our writing staff, and the brilliant cast and crew has been a blast and I’m delighted we get to keep doing it. We couldn’t have made it happen without the constant support of Justin Falvey and Darryl Frank at Amblin TV, David Madden at Fox Television Studios and Eric Schrier at FX Productions and their wonderful teams as well.” says Joel Fields.

The series is a Fox Television production for FX.

[Reported by Mike Waktins]