FX has not renewed The Shards for season 2 as ratings stay quiet

FX has not renewed Ryan Murphy‘s The Shards for a second season, a month after the finale aired on 9 September, as low linear ratings and unreleased streaming data leave its future unclear.

TL;DR

• FX has neither renewed nor cancelled The Shards and has given no decision timeline.
• Linear ratings averaged 237,000 viewers, and the show never reached Nielsen’s streaming top 10s.
• Murphy has pitched a three- or four-season plan, but no order has followed.
• UK viewers can stream season 1 on Disney+.

Where the renewal stands

FX has not renewed or cancelled the series, according to HollywoodLife. The site said the first season ran for nine episodes and ended on 9 September.

The network has set no public deadline. Alas, silence is not a verdict.

The drama launched with a first-look image and a 5 August premiere on FX and Hulu.

What the ratings show

Linear numbers were small. The Hollywood Reporter reported an average of 237,000 viewers for initial airings on FX, which it called normal for a scripted cable series now.

Most of the audience is expected to come from streaming. According to the same report, the show never made Nielsen’s streaming top 10s, and FX has not released its own data.

Murphy’s multi-season plan

Ryan Murphy, executive producer, said he and novelist Bret Easton Ellis always saw the story as “a three- or four-year series” set across a single school year, according to HollywoodLife.

That ambition has not turned into an order yet. The Hollywood Reporter noted that The Shards is the second Murphy-produced FX show this year to end on a cliffhanger without a pickup. Love Story is the other.

Murphy holds a big overall deal with Disney’s 20th Television, and FX has a long history with him. That relationship is the show’s strongest card.

What it means for UK viewers

British audiences watch exclusively on Disney+, where the series launched on 6 August with its first two episodes, according to a Disney+ UK press release.

Disney-owned platforms have made hard calls this year, including Hulu’s cancellation of its Buffy reboot. FX’s other big swing, Alien: Earth, is already filming season 2 at Pinewood Studios.

We’ll keep you posted on updates about The Shards as the situation develops.

---

Reported from publicly available interviews and verified press sources. Last reviewed 8 October 2026.