‘The Americans’ Season 2 Premiere Ratings Fall Sharply From Series Premiere

But the Keri Russell-Matthew Rhys spy drama holds steady with the Season 1 average

The Season 2 premiere of FX’s spy drama “The Americans” held both bad and good ratings news for the series Wednesday night.

The premiere dropped off heavily from last year’s season premiere, but landed on a par with the show’s Season 1 average.

According to preliminary numbers, the Season 2 premiere of “The Americans” — which stars Matthew Rhys and Keri Russell as a pair of Reagan-era Russian spies going undercover as a suburban American couple — drew 1.9 million total viewers, a 41 percent decline from last January’s series premiere.

Also read: ‘The Americans’ Review: Cold War, Slow Burn

In the 18-49 demographic most important to advertisers, “The Americans” had a similar dropoff, sliding 45 percent from the series premiere with 863,000 viewers in the demo versus 1.57 million for the series premiere.

In the bigger picture, the numbers are more encouraging for the series. Compared to the Season 1 average, the Season 2 premiere was up 2 percent in total viewers, and only down 2 percent in the demo.

Also read: ‘The Americans’: 5 Things to Know About the Return of FX’s Spy Drama

Another bright note for the series: It traditionally has been a heavily time-shifted program.

In Live Plus 7 Day numbers, Season 1 averaged an 83 percent boost in total viewers, with an average 93 percent boost in the demo.

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