Breaking: FX Renews American Horror Story

FX just handed American Horror Story a pretty sweet Halloween treat: A Season 2 pickup!

The cabler announced on Monday that it has renewed the freshman thriller for a 13-episode second season. 

“It’s one thing to have the ambition and guts to reinvent a genre in a way that makes it captivatingly fresh for a broad audience — it’s something else entirely to have the craft to back that ambition up,” said FX prez John Landgraf in a statement. “Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk have hit the trifecta with Nip/Tuck, Glee and now American Horror Story, which will be scaring FX’s viewers to death for many years to come.”

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AHS has enjoyed steady audience growth through its first four episodes among its target audience of adults 18-49. According to FX (which is marathoning the first four episodes tonight beginning at 10/9c), the show is “tracking to become the highest-rated first season of any series ever on FX, certain to surpass Murphy’s award-winning hit drama Nip/Tuck in Adults 18-49 and Adults 18-34.”

Unlike Nip/Tuck, it’s unclear what Horror Story‘s second season will look like. It was initially reported that each season would feature a new family moving into the show’s haunted mansion, but producers claim no decision has been made. Just last week, stars Dylan McDermott and Connie Britton pleaded ignorance when asked if they’d be back for more.

“It’s open-ended – we’re not quite sure about the next episode never mind next year,” McDermott hedged. “We’re just sort of like flying by the seat of our pants.” Britton even suggests, “I don’t know that Brad and Ryan know, which I think is really fun.”