Two weeks ago, The Americans premiere got off to a good start on FX. One week later, however, the show was down 40% in the ratings, which either seemed to mean audiences did not really dig the spy drama or people were just too busy to watch episode 2. Luckily, Live+3 ratings have now been accumulated and it seems the culprit was neither of the two solutions mentioned in the prior sentence. Instead, The Americans may have become a DVR favorite.
Most programming on television is boosted somewhat by DVR ratings, and FX programming, including Justified and American Horror Story, is no exception. However, when last Wednesday’s episode dropped from over 3.2 million viewers during the premiere episode to 1.97 viewers during the second episode, things were not looking good for FX’s latest series. Regardless, now Deadline is reporting that with the Live+3 ratings, the show’s second episode actually earned 3.1 million viewers—which is close to the show’s original airing numbers.
Still, the Live+3 ratings are a little troubling. First of all, advertisers care far more about the live numbers than the DVR numbers, due to the fact that DVR allows consumers to breeze through commercials. If the giant boost from the Live+3 ratings becomes a trend for The Americans, and if the show becomes a program that viewers put on the backburner, FX may decide producing a second season is not worth the money. Nearly two million live viewers is not exactly horrible numbers for a cable network, but those aren’t really numbers to stand up and clap for, either.
If you do like The Americans and do have the chance to catch the show live, I would highly suggest doing so. FX’s The Americans airs Wednesday nights at 10 p.m. ET.
