Ryan Murphy has spent more than two decades building one of the most recognizable storytelling brands on television. His shows have cut across genres—musical comedy, medical melodrama, glossy thrillers, true-crime anthologies—and reshaped how networks and streamers think about franchises. After a landmark overall pact with Netflix in 2018, he returned in 2023 to his long-time studio home at Disney’s 20th Television, where he first engineered broadcast and cable juggernauts like Glee, American Horror Story, and American Crime Story. The result is a slate that now runs on ABC, FX and Netflix simultaneously, a rarity that underscores Murphy’s staying power in a rapidly shifting industry. (Deadline)
Early Career and First Breakthroughs
Murphy began working in television at the turn of the millennium with Popular (1999–2001), a WB high school dramedy that foreshadowed his flair for heightened tone and sharp character archetypes. The series refined instincts he would later scale into mainstream phenomena. That leap came with Nip/Tuck (FX, 2003–2010), a glossy, provocative medical drama that introduced many of the stylistic hallmarks—baroque plotting, moral ambiguity, audacious set pieces—that recur throughout his work.
The genuine breakout into pop culture ubiquity arrived in 2009 with Glee. Co-created with Brad Falchuk and Ian Brennan, the musical comedy about a high school show choir became a global phenomenon, merchandised across live tours, charts, and playlists. It also earned Murphy his first Primetime Emmy—Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series—for the pilot episode, formal recognition that he could pair commercial instincts with awards-caliber execution. (Television Academy)
The Anthology Blueprint: American Horror Story and American Crime Story
Murphy’s most significant structural innovation may be the modern, star-driven anthology. With Falchuk he launched American Horror Story (FX, 2011– ), reinventing seasonal storytelling by resetting cast members in wholly new characters and scenarios each year. That architecture became a factory for tone experiments—haunted houses, witch covens, hotel fever dreams—without the creative drag of multi-season serialization.
He applied the same engine to nonfiction with American Crime Story (FX, 2016–2021). The People v. O. J. Simpson set the template; The Assassination of Gianni Versace (2018) validated it with awards-season dominance, including a directing Emmy for Murphy and the Limited Series top prize for the franchise. Those wins cemented American Crime Story as both a critical and commercial pillar of the FX brand. (TIME)
The Netflix Era: A Nine-Figure Bet That Produced Massive Viewership
In 2018, Murphy left his then-Fox/FX base to sign what was widely reported as a five-year, up-to-$300 million overall deal with Netflix, one of the watershed transactions of the streaming boom. The pact yielded a varied slate—The Politician, Hollywood, Ratched—and two culture-dominating hits in Dahmer — Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story (2022) and The Watcher (2022). Netflix said Dahmer surpassed one billion hours viewed in its first 60 days, a milestone achieved by only a handful of English-language series on the service at the time. On the same day Netflix expanded Monster into an ongoing anthology and renewed The Watcher for Season 2, signaling how decisively Murphy’s brand could still move the needle on a global platform. (Deadline)
The second Monster installment, Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, arrived on Sept. 19, 2024, bringing the anthology’s high-gloss, point-of-view framework to another 1990s media obsession. The project reinforced the franchise’s pivot from a one-off limited series into an evergreen format that can be refreshed with new cases and casts. (Netflix)
While The Watcher was swiftly renewed after its splashy debut, Netflix has not announced a 2025 premiere date as of early October 2025; industry outlets have described its status as uncertain even amid renewal. That ambiguity illustrates a broader streaming trend: even hits can move on non-linear schedules as companies rebalance slates post-strikes and post-peak-spending. (Deadline)
A Return to Disney’s 20th Television—and a Two-Front Strategy
After the Netflix term, Murphy reunited in 2023 with Dana Walden and 20th Television (a Disney unit that now houses the former Fox TV operations), effectively re-aligning with the studio infrastructure that originally powered his FX and broadcast successes. The move didn’t end his Netflix footprint—Monster continues there—but it did restore a pipeline to Disney’s linear and Hulu streaming ecosystem. The strategic upshot: Murphy now programs for both a major streamer and a legacy studio that also owns a top cable brand (FX) and a broadcast network (ABC). (IndieWire)
ABC: 9-1-1’s Second Wind and a New Medical Procedural at Sea
On the broadcast side, Murphy’s 9-1-1—co-created with Falchuk and Tim Minear—migrated from Fox to ABC in 2024, where it immediately reasserted itself as a Thursday tentpole and has already been teed up for a ninth season. ABC has slated the Season 9 premiere for Oct. 9, 2025, positioning the franchise for yet another fall run anchored by event-scale emergencies. The move from Fox revived the series’ promotional cadence inside Disney’s larger ecosystem, with next-day streaming on Hulu further extending reach. (ABC)
Murphy also launched Doctor Odyssey (ABC, 2024), a high-velocity medical drama set aboard a luxury cruise ship and led by Joshua Jackson with Don Johnson among the ensemble. The series gave ABC a glossy, escapist hour in a space rarely explored by network procedurals. After its inaugural season, however, ABC canceled Doctor Odyssey in mid-2025, a decision that reflects how unforgiving the current broadcast market can be even for brand-name producers. (ABC)
Meanwhile, 9-1-1: Lone Star concluded a five-season run on Fox in early 2025, closing the chapter on the Austin-set spinoff while clearing the deck for ABC’s mothership series to soak up more franchise oxygen. The combined effect is a tighter focus on the flagship as it enters its late-stage seasons. (Deadline)
FX: Prestige Anthologies and New Horror
Murphy’s FX relationship stayed fertile during and after the Netflix period. American Horror Story continued with its 12th season, Delicate (2023–2024), which split its rollout into two parts and maintained the franchise’s pop-culture profile with headline-grabbing casting. In January 2024, FX premiered Feud: Capote vs. The Swans, the long-gestating second installment of Feud, delivering a starry period drama about New York high society’s rupture with writer Truman Capote. The return of Feud demonstrated Murphy’s ability to rotate dormant IP back into relevance when the marketplace is ready for it. (Wikipedia)
FX also became home to Grotesquerie (2024), an original horror-crime thriller headlined by Niecy Nash-Betts. Premiering in September 2024, the series underscored Murphy’s continued appetite for genre experimentation on basic cable, with next-day Hulu streaming extending its audience beyond linear airing. The show’s fall rollout slotted neatly alongside AHS on the schedule, restoring an FX lineup reminiscent of Murphy’s pre-streaming dominance on cable. (Hulu)
Awards and Accolades
Murphy’s trophy case reflects both his craft versatility and his deep bench of collaborators. He has earned six Primetime Emmys across directing and producing categories, including wins attached to Glee and The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story. He also took home a Tony Award in 2019 as a producer of The Boys in the Band (Best Revival of a Play), further evidence that his capacity to package and mount projects extends beyond television into Broadway. In 2023, the Golden Globes honored Murphy with the Carol Burnett Award for lifetime achievement in television. (Television Academy)
A Franchise Builder With Reliable Collaborators
One throughline in Murphy’s longevity is how deliberately he builds teams. Brad Falchuk and Ian Brennan remain core creative partners across multiple series; Alexis Martin Woodall is the longtime production executive who helps translate Murphy’s sensibility into schedules and budgets; Tim Minear helms the 9-1-1 universe as showrunner and co-creator. That division of labor allows Murphy to incubate new ideas while keeping existing brands on rails. The anthology model, especially, benefits from this system: new seasons can be developed in parallel, each with its own writers, directors, and cast, yet still feel unmistakably “Murphy.”
How the Business Strategy Maps to the Current TV Economy
Murphy’s 2018 Netflix pact marked an era of spend-first streaming landgrabs. By the time he returned to Disney’s 20th Television five years later, the market had rebalanced toward discipline: fewer blank-check deals, more reliance on proven brands, and an emphasis on multiplatform distribution. Murphy’s portfolio—half legacy IP management, half new-series bets—suits that environment. On Disney’s side, he delivers for ABC and FX and multiplies upside via Hulu; on Netflix, he anchors a global true-crime anthology that can be refreshed seasonally with high-recognition cases. That two-front approach hedges risk while maintaining an output pace that keeps his name constantly in the conversation. (IndieWire)
Recent Highlights and What’s Next
Broadcast momentum. 9-1-1 continues to function as a durable network engine. Its ABC tenure, complete with a fall 2025 Season 9 premiere, shows the franchise can evolve without losing steam. That matters for advertisers and for ABC’s Thursday identity, where the series now sits as a centerpiece. (EW.com)
Streaming durability. On Netflix, Monster has proved both sticky and expandable. The Menendez installment extended the franchise’s reach with a headline-driving case; Netflix’s earlier decision to order additional anthology cycles ensures the brand will remain a platform priority. While The Watcher’s Season 2 remains without a formal date, the title’s renewal and initial performance still represent a major plank of Murphy’s streaming era. (Netflix)
Cable prestige. FX remains a creative lab where Murphy can trial forms that aren’t purely ratings-driven, from the period intrigue of Feud to horror-procedural hybrids like Grotesquerie. That balance—one eye on scale, one eye on experimentation—has been present since the early Nip/Tuck years and continues to define his output. (Esquire)
The Murphy Playbook: Why It Works
Several repeatable tactics underpin Murphy’s hit rate:
- High-concept hooks with immediate loglines. Whether it’s an elite Los Angeles firehouse responding to “the big one,” a cruise-ship ER in international waters, or a true-crime retelling centered on a notorious name, his shows start with premises that market themselves. (Doctor Odyssey’s cancellation doesn’t negate the effectiveness of the concept; it illustrates the tighter tolerance for failure on modern broadcast.) (ABC)
- Anthology as a talent magnet. By resetting casts annually, Murphy can recruit A-list performers for single seasons without long-term commitments, keeping shows fresh while making scheduling and budgeting more flexible.
- Tone control and visual maximalism. From Nip/Tuck to AHS, Murphy’s series are easy to recognize: saturated colors, propulsive needle-drops, and set-piece moments designed for trailer-friendly impact. That house style travels well across platforms and territories.
- Bench strength behind the camera. The producer’s recurring creative partners keep pace as Murphy toggles between development and active shows, enabling parallel production without diluting the brand.
A Career Measured in Impact as Much as Ratings
There are showrunners with single, defining hits, and then there is Murphy, whose career is a collection of distinct phases, each with its own tentpole. Glee reframed what a broadcast hit could look like in the late-2000s, widening the aperture for musical storytelling on network TV. American Horror Story mainstreamed the anthology form in the 2010s and turned seasonal reinvention into an audience expectation. American Crime Story proved that real-life cases could be dramatized with formal rigor and awards-caliber results. The streaming phase introduced Monster and The Watcher to a truly global viewership, with the former joining Netflix’s handful of all-time performers by internal metrics. (Netflix)
Just as important, Murphy’s work has influenced commissioning strategies across the industry. Networks and streamers have chased anthology structures to lower renewal risk and increase casting leverage; broadcasters have pursued high-concept procedurals that can mint syndication value while doubling as streaming catalog fuel. In both respects, Murphy’s output functions as a playbook.
The Numbers Behind the Narrative
Even a cursory scan of Murphy’s résumé reveals the breadth: Nip/Tuck; Glee; American Horror Story and its offshoot American Horror Stories; American Crime Story; Scream Queens; 9-1-1 and 9-1-1: Lone Star; Feud; The Politician; Hollywood; Ratched; Dahmer — Monster and Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story; The Watcher; Grotesquerie; and short-lived experiments like Doctor Odyssey. The awards ledger is similarly dense: six Primetime Emmys; the 2019 Tony Award for The Boys in the Band; and the Carol Burnett Award in 2023. Those metrics don’t just reflect past accomplishment; they serve as collateral that helps sell the next show, and the one after that. (Television Academy)
Outlook: A Producer Built for the Long Game
As of October 2025, Murphy is again programming for multiple outlets at once: stewarding ABC’s 9-1-1 era; delivering FX prestige entries; and expanding a true-crime anthology on Netflix that continues to generate global conversation. It’s a portfolio uniquely suited to today’s “hybrid” television economy, where linear, cable, and streaming must all be served with distinct but compatible products. Few producers can credibly balance those demands; fewer still can do it while launching new titles and keeping existing franchises on tempo.
The bigger lesson of the Murphy playbook is durability through format. When the market favors glossy event procedurals, he has them. When a streamer needs an IP-ready anthology with built-in marketing, he has that, too. And when cable wants a signature fall drama that can live on Hulu the next day, the FX bench remains open. Whatever the platform and business model, Murphy’s brand—high-concept, star-driven, unapologetically stylized—travels.
In a business that constantly resets the rules, Ryan Murphy has made a career of rewriting his own. And for now, the industry keeps following along.
