Grande's team would frame her absence as a scheduling victory — she's simply too busy headlining a massive world tour to commit to a television production, and that's proof of her undeniable star power.
Insiders close to the production suggest Ryan Murphy really wanted her for Season 13, but nobody could make the dates work around her concert commitments. The AHS door isn't closed forever — just this season.
Page Six reported on July 10, 2026 that Grande will not appear in American Horror Story Season 13. She is currently touring her Eternal Sunshine album across multiple continents through at least late 2026.
Grande's loss — whether by choice or logistics — is AHS fans' gain of curiosity. We'll have to settle for her music haunting us instead of her scares this fall.
Well, folks, it looks like American Horror Story Season 13 will have to find its terror elsewhere. According to a Page Six report published on July 10, 2026, Ariana Grande will NOT be appearing in the upcoming installment of Ryan Murphy's horror anthology series. The news comes as a disappointment to fans who had been holding out hope that the pop star would make good on whatever whispers had been circulating about a potential collaboration with the FX franchise.
The reason? Scheduling conflicts — specifically, Grande's ongoing Eternal Sunshine world tour. The singer has been crisscrossing the globe performing shows in support of her latest album, and apparently those commitments don't leave much room for screaming in front of a camera on a horror set.
Touring schedules are notoriously inflexible, with venues, crews, and ticket sales all locked into place months or even years in advance. Television production timelines, while also complex, often can't bend around an artist's concert calendar without significant cost and coordination. This isn't the first time Grande has dipped her toes into acting, of course.
She's appeared in films like "Hairspray: That's What I Call It" and made guest appearances on various television projects over the years. But committing to a full season of a prestige horror series — one known for demanding shoot schedules that can run months long — would require a level of availability that simply doesn't exist when you're juggling stadium dates across multiple continents. For American Horror Story, which has built its reputation on landing surprising casting coups and marquee names over the years, this particular door appears to be firmly shut for now.
But in Hollywood, "never say never" remains the industry motto. Murphy has demonstrated time and again that he's willing to wait for the right talent when a project matters enough, and Grande's crossover appeal — combining pop music dominance with screen presence — would make her an obvious candidate for future seasons if circumstances align differently next time around. For now, fans will have to content themselves with streaming Grande's concert performances or revisiting her recorded work while they wait to see what fresh nightmares Murphy has in store for Season 13. The Eternal Sunshine tour continues through at least the end of the year, which means don't expect any late-breaking reversals on this front anytime soon.
