Viewership & Audience Reception

Total viewership per season in millions stayed consistent between season one and season two and then saw a big increase between season 2 and 3. Total viewership drops off with season 5, Hotel, while still considerably high for a cable show. Each season follows a similar trend of starting with the highest viewership of the season in episode one that overall declines throughout the season with key bumps around certain episodes and then an uptick in viewership for the finale.

Season 1, 2, 3, and 4 saw increases in their highest viewed episode with a slight dip between Freak Show and Hotel. Season 4 of AHS reaches a milestone of most viewed episode thus far. Unfortunately the next season, 5, saw another milestone, the lowest viewed episode at that point in the season. Something else that stood out is that season 5’s average viewership reached season one levels, never getting back up to those heights again. I have an unproven common-sense notion that each season’s success, especially upon premiere, is largely reliant on the previous season, showing that Freak Show halted the meteoric levels of success early seasons saw in pop culture.

Total viewership however pokes holes in this theory with similar viewership for season 3 and 4, both significantly higher than seasons one, two, and five. So this led me to hypothesize that seasons three and four are the most well regarded. I genuinely just wanted to better understand why the show had gone from stunning to increasingly bad despite involving the same creators, actors, and increasing budgets. What season is the culprit?

That however is not supported in the Rotten Tomatoes audience scores. Season one is currently at 84%, Asylum at 90%, Coven at 76%, Freak Show at 68%, andHotel at 61%. I had anticipated that Asylum would be highly rated but didn’t think it would be the highest and had been pleasantly surprised by that. What I also didn't expect was season three being at 76% when taking social media engagement into account. I mostly saw GIFs, memes, and references to Murder House and Coven, previously even thinking that Asylum didn’t get the acclaim it deserved. Fortunately I was very wrong when it came to audience reception. I don’t agree with every rating but I do agree with Asylum being the highest scored season of the series after rewatching.

Seasons