Is 'American Horror Story' in Trouble?

Since its season-six debut scored big ratings back in September, American Horror Story has been consistently sliding in viewership. It's still one of the highest-rated series on cable TV, however, and even if this new trend is concerning, it's almost certainly not fatal.

The season's premiere episode, which aired on FX in mid-September, drew more than 5 million total viewers and nailed down a 2.8 rating in the 18-49 age demographic. Since then, nearly every subsequent episode has experienced a drop in ratings from the episode that came before, including a drop of nearly a third from the first episode to the second.

This week's eighth episode of the season drew just 2.2 million total viewers and a 1.2 rating in the 18-49 group, by far the lowest ratings of the season so far.

There are plenty of reasons not to be worried. First of all, this week's episode was up against game 7 of the World Series, an historic Chicago Cubs victory that drew an astounding 40 million viewers. Second, AHS has consistently done very well in delayed viewing, and this week in particular, the series is likely to see a big bump from fans who put off watching the episode until later.