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Evan Peters and Ryan Murphy have collaborated on multiple seasons of the anthology series American Horror Story. Murphy and Peters have each shared their favorite season of the show, and their answers may surprise you. 

"American Horror Story" creator Ryan Murphy and actor Evan Peters pose together with Golden Globe Awards.
Ryan Murphy and Evan Peters | Kevin Mazur/Getty Images

‘American Horror Story’ star Evan Peters revealed his favorite season of the anthology series created by Ryan Murphy

In a 2014 interview with Vulture, Evan Peters was asked to rank each season of American Horror Story. The actor had only filmed seasons 1-3 at the time. 

“I always like the first one the best,” Peters answered, referring to the season dubbed Murder House, in which he plays the ghost of school shooter Tate Langdon. “And then the second one was cool because it was completely different from the first one and I was pretty central. It was a lot of work. And very challenging.”

He added that working with his girlfriend at the time, Emma Roberts, made filming season 3 (Coven) enjoyable. “And then the third one was fun because I got to work with Emma and be in New Orleans for seven months,” the actor shared. “There was a lot more comedy this year as well, a funnier tone and it was just a little bit lighter.”

Years later, Peters stood by his answer in a 2018 interview with GQ. “Season 1 was probably my favorite season,” he said. “We didn’t know what it was, I didn’t know it was gonna be an anthology series, I didn’t know I was gonna be playing a different role. I didn’t know anything. I was just happy to have a job and happy to have a cool part, being in a show that was intense and sort of flipped everything on its head.”

‘American Horror Story’ creator Ryan Murphy revealed his favorite season of the show, largely based on Evan Peters’ performance

Ryan Murphy, who created American Horror Story with Brad Falchuk, has a different favorite season of the show than Evan Peters. In 2019, Murphy told Entertainment Weekly that season 6, called Cult, was his favorite of the anthology series.

“This was my favorite season,” he said. “I think Falchuk agrees.” Murphy added that Peters’ performance, which he described as “criminally underrated,” was one of the reasons he loved season 6 so much. 

“Largely this episode [season 6 episode 11, “Great Again”] is my favorite because the pairing of Paulson vs. Evan Peters was my favorite antagonist/protagonist thing we have ever done,” he said. “They are so close and really understand how to work with each other, and get underneath each other’s skin like brother and sister, so it really clicked. And it was satirical to boot, which I loved. I really loved Evan’s performance so much, and so did Sarah. We still talk about it. Like once a week about how good he is? Evan is CRIMINALLY underrated in this role.”

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The show creator also revealed his favorite episode

Although Cult was Ryan Murphy’s favorite season of American Horror Story, it did not have his favorite episode of the entire series. Just as Evan Peters loved season 1 of the show, Murphy’s favorite episode came from Murder House.

“The first, and always number one in my heart, for several reasons,” the show creator explained. “One, Brad and I spent so long on it…years on the pitch, years on the script, until [FX CEO] John Landgraf and [co-head of 20th Century Fox TV] Dana Walden and Brad and I got it to where we wanted. From rough idea to day one of filming took four years.”

Murphy said that nothing like AHS had ever been done before. “It was a huge risk at the time, creatively and financially. Dana Walden has said to me several times it was one of the most out-of-the-box ideas in the history of modern television, and I think she’s right,” he shared. “I remember John saying to me when I gave him the final pitch, ‘Wait a minute…you’re going to burn down the sets every year and start over every season?’ I said, ‘Yes.’ He paused and then said, ‘This scares me…but excites me, too. Let’s do it.’ That first season sort of reinvented the anthological storytelling space that I loved as a kid and has ushered in a whole new way of MAKING television (creatively and economically), and I’m very proud of that.”

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