Ryan Murphy's American Story banner launched in 2011 with American Horror Story (which launches its tenth installment later this month) followed by its first spinoff American Crime Story in 2016 (which returns for its third installment next month) and then by its second spinoff American Horror Stories last month (which was just renewed for a second season).
American Sports Story is a scripted anthology limited series focusing on a prominent event involving a sports figure and re-examines it through the prism of today's world, telling that story from multiple perspectives.
The first installment is based on the podcast "Gladiator: Aaron Hernandez and Football Inc" from the Boston Globe and Wondery. The season will chart the rise and fall of NFL superstar Aaron Hernandez and explores the connections of the disparate strands of his identity, his family, his career, his suicide, and their legacy in sports and American culture.
Stu Zicherman will serve as showrunner on the first installment. He will executive produce with Murphy, Nina Jacobson, Brad Simpson, Alexis Martin Woodall, Brad Falchuk, Hernan Lopez, Marshall Lewy, Linda Pizutti Henry and Ira Napoliello. 20th Television and FX Productions will produce.
American Love Story is a scripted anthology series of sweeping true love stories that captured the world's attention.
The first installment will depict the whirlwind courtship and marriage of John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette. What started out as a beautiful union for the young couple, widely regarded as American royalty, began to fray under the stress of the relentless microscope and navel gaze of tabloid media. The pressures of their careers and rumored family discord ended with their tragic deaths when his private plane crashed into the ocean on a hazy summer night off the coast of Massachusetts.
Murphy executive produces with Brad Falchuk, Nina Jacobson, Brad Simpson and Alexis Martin Woodall. 20th Television and FX Productions will produce.
"When Ryan Murphy came to us with these two spinoffs and the stories for American Sports Story and American Love Story, we immediately jumped at the opportunity," said John Landgraf, Chairman, FX. "What began with American Horror Story has spawned some of the best and most indelible programs of our generation, most notably American Crime Story which created a beautiful partnership between Ryan, Brad, Nina and Brad. Their alchemy and the way in which they construct these stories is done with such care, such clarity and such dimensionality that creates the magnificence that is The People v. O.J. Simpson, The Assassination of Gianni Versace and Impeachment. We can't wait to see what comes next."
