American Horror Story's Format Change Confirms The Worst Season 13 Fears

Published Sep 26, 2026, 10:45 PM EDT

Ben is a Senior Writer on the New TV team at Screen Rant. He graduated from the University of Central Lancashire with a First Class B.A. Degree in English Literature and History.

Born and raised in Ireland, Ben has always had a love for storytelling in all forms of media and operates multiple projects under the name Benjamin Blogs. Ben is a comic book writer and podcast host, in addition to his work as an entertainment journalist. He has worked as both a writer and editor for Screen Rant, Collider, and other media outlets across various departments, including features, news, reviews, and interviews.

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American Horror Story season 13 has a lot riding on it, and unfortunately, the three-episode debut has confirmed one terrible change that is not working in the show's favor. Since 2011, American Horror Story has been delivering some of the most compelling and intense horror on TV, but while the early seasons raised the bar high, the show has been wavering for several years now.

However, season 13 had some extremely high expectations with the announcement that several prominent cast members who have not been seen since some of those pivotal seasons would be returning. That said, with the track record not being the best of late, fans were cautiously optimistic that this would be a return to form.

And unfortunately, despite the excitement generated by news of cast returns and old characters and stories being reignited, one detail about the length of episodes in American Horror Story season 13 seemed to spell disaster for this latest outing, which has yet to be dispelled after the season debut on Hulu and FX.

Short Episode Lengths Aren't Fit For American Horror Story Season 13's Ambitions

There is no doubt that American Horror Story season 13 has been setting itself up to be a spectacular new beginning for the franchise, playing off the superstitions associated with the number 13, and pushing out the boat when it comes to casting and storytelling. This season is supposed to be the equivalent of getting the Avengers together, as the franchise plays off of everything that came before.

And yet, with the show now cutting the episode runtimes in less than half in some instances, as the average runtime looks to be between 22 and 33 minutes per episode as opposed to the previous seasons' 45–60 minute runtimes, there is simply not enough space to really dive into the narrative and do anything substantial in a single episode.

This might not have been a major issue if the plot of the season was a little easier to follow, but as was showcased in the first three episodes, the amount of subplots and the extent to which the story is jumping around is proving challenging to make any substantial development in any episode.

In the three-episode debut, the show could have had a more linear plot, but instead, it's already been jumping from one narrative to another, trying to create loose connections between them all, but struggling to make one consistent thread that captivates the audience. Begging the question, why couldn't these first three episodes have just been combined into one slightly longer episode than normal?

American Horror Story Season 13's Format Change Is Hurting The Crossover (At Least So Far)

Image via Disney+

Now, there are 10 more episodes still to come as part of this season at the time of publishing this article, but it's hard to imagine that another 10 episodes like this, with 22 to 33 minutes worth of exposition, will add up to anything that provocative. After all, that results in somewhere between 3 1/2 and 5 hours left of this story still to be told. Considering that would have made up half a season during earlier runs, it feels a little too ambitious to pull off.

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Clearly, the goal of creating connections between the most popular characters feels like something that makes sense this deep into a twisty anthology series like American Horror Story. But with a lack of consistency so far, and no real explanation or exploration of what the larger goal of the season is, it just feels destined to fall flat.

It's an enormous shame, because with so many incredible talents back on the small screen, and beloved chapters of this series finally being revisited, it seemed as though this could have worked out. Unfortunately, American Horror Story season 13 has a long way to climb, and a very short rope to do it with as the remainder of the season races against the clock to turn things around.

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