Ryan Murphy Says Roanoke Is His Favorite AHS Season

At the launch of the 13th season, the FX creator said the 2016 ‘Roanoke’ run tops his personal list, sparking a fresh debate among fans.

Ryan Murphy stepped onto the red carpet for the 13th season of American Horror Story and dropped a curveball that’s already buzzing on social feeds. The Emmy‑winning writer‑producer told Page Six that his favorite season is the one most viewers slammed – 2016’s Roanoke.

“My favorite season is the season which everybody hates, which is ‘Roanoke,’” Murphy said, adding that he loved the experiment with form.

The sixth season, which aired in 2016, split its narrative between a faux‑documentary recounting a couple’s terror in a North Carolina farmhouse and a later found‑footage segment that blurred the line between actors and their real‑life counterparts. The gamble paid off in controversy, earning a reputation as the series’ most polarising chapter.

Murphy’s confession comes as AHS rolls out new episodes every Thursday at 9 p.m. ET on FX, Hulu and Disney+. All twelve previous seasons are already streaming on the two platforms, giving newcomers a chance to revisit the very season Murphy now champions.

Fans have taken the comment in two directions. Some applaud the creator for standing by a risk‑taking concept that pushed the anthology’s boundaries. Others, however, echo the sentiment of star Sarah Paulson, who recently told Entertainment Tonight she can’t stand Roanoke.

“I don’t care! Bite me! Bite me hard! I don’t give a s***, sorry!” Paulson exclaimed, noting that she often gets flak for the remark.

The actress’s blunt reaction shows a lingering divide. While the season has been reassessed by a segment of the audience – Murphy noted that “a lot of people are discovering it and it’s become a lot of people’s favorite” – the initial backlash still colors its legacy.

Murphy’s love for the format, which mixed true‑crime documentary tropes with horror, hints at why he might favor Roanoke over more conventional entries. The creator has repeatedly praised the series’ willingness to reinvent itself each year, and Roanoke was arguably the boldest test of that mantra.

The announcement also arrives at a time when the anthology is courting a new generation of viewers. With the 13th season promising fresh twists and a star‑studded roster, Murphy’s nod to a past experiment may is a reminder that AHS thrives on surprise.

Whether the comment will sway skeptics remains to be seen, but it has already sparked a wave of memes, retrospectives and heated threads across Twitter and Reddit. As the new episodes roll out, the conversation around Roanoke is likely to intensify, giving the season a second wind that Murphy seems eager to see.

What’s next? The next Thursday episode drops, and fans will be watching not just for scares but for clues about whether the creator’s favorite will finally earn its long‑overdue redemption.

American Horror Story continues to dominate the horror‑anthology space, and Ryan Murphy’s candid confession adds another layer to its ever‑evolving mythos.