‘Adults’ Defies Sophomore Slump With Ratings Growth

FX‘s Adults is riding strong reviews and word of mouth into audience growth in its second season.

The hangout comedy from creators Ben Kronengold and Rebecca Shaw, which premiered Aug. 27, has posted substantial gains on Hulu and Disney+. In the 12 days since the eight-episode season debuted on the streamer, streaming viewing is up 40 percent compared to the same period for season one in May and June 2025.

A lot of that growth is coming from overseas, where the show streams on Disney+. Viewing outside the United States has doubled compared to season one. The gains are based on Disney’s internal streaming data; baseline numbers for season one weren’t immediately available. Both seasons premiered as binge releases on Hulu in the U.S. while also airing two episodes per week on cable channels FX (season one) or FXX (season two).

Also helping is a prequel episode, “Marathon Day,” that premiered July 31 and helped juice streaming of the show’s first season in the four weeks before season two premiered.

“FX came to us and said, how should we welcome viewers back, do you have any ideas for something big and out of the box?” Kronengold told The Hollywood Reporter about “Marathon Day.” “Since we started the series by dropping people into the middle of this friend group, we figured we should do an origin story. It’s also a way to bring in new audiences who weren’t there last year when the show came out.”

Granted, the audience for season one of Adults was not very big; both FX and Kronengold and Shaw have said as much. But the show is also bucking a recent trend of second-season declines for a number of series, and for a smaller series to have its ratings curve go up in season two is notable.

Adults comes from FX Productions. Malik Elassal, Lucy Freyer, Jack Innanen, Amita Rao and Owen Thiele star as a group of friends who share a house in Queens. Kronengold and Shaw are the showrunners and executive produce with Nick Kroll, Sarah Naftalis, Jonathan Krisel, Alicia Van Couvering and Rob Rosell.