Unlike the Soviet Union, The Americans has a future.
FX today renewed the new Cold War spy drama (Wednesday, 10 p.m. ET/PT) for a 13-episode second season.
The series, set in 1981, features Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys as a married couple with two children working as undercover KGB spies in the Washington, D.C., area. Noah Emmerich plays a neighbor who just happens to be an FBI agent investigating Soviet operatives.
Through its first three weeks, The Americans is averaging 3.6 million viewers counting viewers who watch an episode within three days of the initial broadcast. Slightly more than half of those are in the advertiser-coveted young-adult demographic. Its first episode drew 5.1 million viewers, the most for an FX series premiere.
Nine more first-season episodes remain, and FX will broadcast a marathon of the first five episodes on March 1 at 10 p.m. ET/PT. The season finale will run May 1.
"The show is truly worthy of its widespread acclaim and we are confident that its quality will continue to yield a robust and passionate audience," FX Networks President John Landraf said in a statement accompanying the announcement.
Joe Weisberg, a former CIA agent, is the creator and an executive producer.
