Where to Watch Powered by The Americans was inspired by a real-life couple, Elena Vavilova and Andrey Bezrukov, who were deep-cover Russian spies working in the United States. The real-life spies, along with eight others, were arrested in 2010 as part of Operation Ghost Stories, a spy ring known as the Illegals Program. After a prisoner exchange between the United States and Russia, the spies returned to Moscow and were awarded for their actions, similar to what happened in the show.

FX's award-winning series The Americans was steeped in the historical era of the Cold War, begging the question of if it was based on a true story. Premiering in 2013, The Americans followed Elizabeth and Phillip Jennings (Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys), a seemingly normal couple living in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. However, their normal American facade hid the reality that they were secretly Kgb agents working for Russia in deep cover,...