Sarah Paulson Unfiltered: Ranking AHS Characters and Roanoke’s Controversial Place

Sarah Paulson ranks her AHS characters, calling out Roanoke as her least favorite. Ryan Murphy defends the season.

September 24, 2026 One Min Read

POLICY WIRE — New York, United States — Sarah Paulson has given a candid assessment of her most and least favorite seasons of American Horror Story, revealing her strong opinions on the show’s many iterations.

The 51-year-old actress has appeared in 10 seasons of the anthology series, playing over a dozen different roles. In an interview with Entertainment Tonight, she named Lana Winters as her all-time favorite character, portraying the investigative journalist in both Asylum and Roanoke.

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Paulson also listed Cordelia from Coven, Tuberculosis Karen from Double Feature, Sally from Hotel, and Bette and Dot from Freak Show as her top choices. She then declared that Roanoke was her least favorite, stating, “I don’t give a s*** about that season.” The sixth season of AHS, which aired in 2016, took a different approach by starting as a paranormal true-crime mockumentary before shifting to a found footage format.

Ryan Murphy, Paulson’s longtime collaborator, responded to her comments on Instagram, defending the season. “JUSTICE FOR ROANOKE!” he wrote. “My favorite season, Sarah’s least favorite…but she was so good in it! We’ve had arguments…”

Reporting by Policy-Wire (PW)

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