Empire Full Series

[Maryetta Worm]

Empireis an American music drama television series created by Lee Daniels and Danny Strong for Fox that ran from January 7, 2015, to April 21, 2020. It is a joint production by Imagine Television and 20th Century Fox Television and syndicated by 20th Television. Although it is filmed in Chicago,[2][3] the show is set in New York. The series centers on the fictional hip hop music and entertainment company Empire Entertainment, and the drama among the members of the founders' family as they fight for control of it. It stars Terrence Howard, Taraji P. Henson, Bryshere Y. Gray, Jussie Smollett and Trai Byers as members of the Lyon Family, along with a supporting cast including Grace Byers, Kaitlin Doubleday, Gabourey Sidibe, Ta'Rhonda Jones, Serayah, Malik Yoba and Vivica A. Fox.

The series premiered on January 7, 2015, to nearly 10 million viewers while the first-season finale was watched by 17 million viewers. Its first season received positive reviews from critics, who praised its acting, particularly Henson's, its direction, soundtrack, writing, costumes, editing and the overall tone of the show, with many critics describing it as a "fresh take on a musical". Subsequent seasons also received positive reviews, with its second season being the most well received.

During its run, it was one of the most-watched television shows on Fox. On April 30, 2019, Fox renewed the show for the sixth and final season, and the first without Smollett, who was confirmed to not be returning after he was charged with filing a false police report in an incident in which he staged an assault and hate crime. The season premiered on September 24, 2019,[4][5][6] and the series concluded on April 21, 2020.

A spin-off of the series, centered around Taraji P. Henson's character, Cookie Lyon, was set to launch in 2020.[7] However, Fox passed on the pilot, and it was being shopped to other networks.[8] It has since been axed altogether.

The executive producers are Brian Grazer, Danny Strong and Francie Calfo. The show is written by Strong while Lee Daniels, who has been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director, made his television directorial debut with the show.[16][38] According to Strong, the show is based in part on William Shakespeare's King Lear, and James Goldman's The Lion in Winter; Daniels also acknowledged a strong influence from the ABC prime-time soap opera Dynasty.[38][39] Ilene Chaiken later joined the series as showrunner.[40]On January 17, 2015, the series was renewed for an 18-episode second season,[41] which premiered on September 23, 2015.[42]

Howard was cast in the lead on February 19, 2014.[10] Henson was named as the female lead on February 26, and Jussie Smollett was announced in a starring role.[11] Howard and Henson previously starred together as love interests in the film Hustle & Flow, and starred in the 2005 film Four Brothers.[11] On March 10, 2014, Sidibe, who had previously worked with Daniels in Precious, was cast in a recurring role as Becky, Lucious' assistant. Trai Byers and Grace Gealey were announced in regular roles, while Bryshere Y. Gray and Malik Yoba were announced in starring roles.[16] Courtney Love was added to the cast on October 23, 2014.[50] Naomi Campbell was announced in a recurring role on September 29, 2014.[51]

On January 22, 2019, Jussie Smollett filed a police report about a threatening letter sent to Fox Studios, where Empire is filmed. According to Smollett, the letter contained "threatening language" and a powdery substance believed to be crushed-up Tylenol.[55] On January 29, 2019, Smollett reported that he was attacked by two men who shouted "homophobic and racial slurs" at him and then threw an "unknown chemical substance" on him. Smollett told police that they wrapped a rope around his neck and yelled "MAGA country",[56] which references President Donald Trump's "Make America Great Again" (MAGA) slogan.[57] Smollett was then hospitalized.[56]

On February 13, Chicago police arrested two "persons of interest". However, on February 14, 2019, it was revealed that police were investigating whether Smollett and the two men staged the attack because Smollett believed he was being written off Empire.[58] Interrogations revealed that both men, the Osundairo brothers, were allegedly paid off by Smollett to stage the attack.[55] On February 20, 2019, Smollett was indicted for filing a false police report.[59] He faces a maximum of three years in prison.[59]

Subsequently, Smollett was removed from the last two episodes of the fifth season. In a written statement, the show's producers said that "While these allegations are very disturbing, we are placing our trust in the legal system as the process plays... We are also aware of the effects of this process on the cast and crew members who work on our show and to avoid further disruption on set, we have decided to remove the role of 'Jamal' from the final two episodes of the season."[60]

On March 26, it was announced that the charges against Smollett had been dropped, although he remains under federal investigation regarding a hate letter that is believed to have been written by Smollett himself. The fate of Smollett's character 'Jamal' currently remains unclear.[61][62]

On April 30, 2019, it was announced that, although Fox Entertainment had extended Smollett's contract for season six of Empire, there were no plans for the character to appear during the season.[63][64]

On December 9, 2021, Smollett was convicted on five of six counts brought against him by Special Prosecutor Dan Webb in the hoax case and is awaiting sentencing, where he faces up to three years in county jail for his fabricated police reports.[66]

Clayton Prince, a Philadelphia native and actor who gained early notoriety for starring as Jericho "Gibs" Gibson in the CBS crime drama television series Dark Justice, sued Daniels over accusations of copyright infringement in 2016. Prince alleged that Daniels stole the idea for Empire after having pitched it to him at a Greater Philadelphia Film Office event in 2008. Cream, Prince's musical drama television show, revolved around an African-American record label executive who, after being diagnosed with a fatal disease, must hastily choose a successor to run his record label upon his death. US District Judge Joel Slomsky dismissed the case in April 2017, stating that the plots of both shows were dissimilar enough to rule out any possible copyright infringement. In his words, "...both Mozart and Metallica composed in E minor."[67] Prince went on to make Cream as a four part miniseries in 2017.[68]

After finding his lead actors, Lee Daniels set out to find a producer to craft the music for the series. Because he felt his own musical tastes and desires would be a little too dated for the show, Daniels consulted with people he thought could give him a little more insight, his children. At the urging of his son and daughter, Daniels contacted super producer Timothy "Timbaland" Mosley, known for scoring hits with some of pop and R&B's biggest artists including Missy Elliott, Madonna, Brandy, Destiny's Child, Justin Timberlake, Jay-Z, Nelly Furtado, Ginuwine, and Aaliyah.[69]

As executive music Producer, Timbaland, co-songwriter/producer Jim Beanz, and a team of other musical collaborators took their cues from the writing team, which gave them an idea of where the plot is headed, and craft songs to fit those themes. However, the musical aspect of the series is very reality-based, unlike Fox's last musical series, Glee, performances come with the organic development of the characters as artists, much like the performances featured in the ABC prime-time country musical drama Nashville.[39][70]

Any licensed songs and composer Fil Eisler's score are added after the episodes are filmed. The pilot itself consists of 12 songs.[71] Columbia Records releases weekly soundtracks of Empire on the iTunes Store, the same strategy used with Glee.[72] In May 2015, Fox announced that Ne-Yo and J.R. Rotem would write music for the show's second season, joining Timbaland.[42] Timbaland left Empire after season 2, and were replaced for season 3 by Rodney "Darkchild" Jerkins and Esther Dean.[73]

On September 8, 2015, Scott Hoying and Mitch Grassi from Pentatonix arranged a medley of songs from the first season of Empire and posted it on their shared YouTube comedy/music channel, Superfruit. The video was sponsored by the Fox Broadcasting Company.

Columbia Records released the official soundtrack of Empire's first season on March 10, 2015.[74] The soundtrack consists of 11 songs and the deluxe version consists of 18 songs, all performed on the show. As of October 2015, the album has sold 439,000 total copies in the United States.[75] Additional releases have followed for subsequent seasons.

Empire was set to premiere in Australia on February 19, 2015, on Network Ten;[82] however, a week out from this date it was dumped from the schedule and pushed back. It ultimately premiered on March 1, 2015,[83] to a disappointing 377,000 total viewers, although it fared better with viewers in younger demographics.[84] The second season was broadcast on Eleven from September 29, 2015.[85]

The series premiered in India on STAR World Premiere HD on April 24, 2015 (only in high-definition). Later, on July 14, 2015, Empire also premiered on FX India (both in standard and high definition) with the Season 1 finale airing on July 29, 2015. Empire premiered on June 24, 2015, in Germany on Pro Sieben, with the Pilot reaching 930,000 viewers.[95] In Finland, the show premiered on Sub on December 2, 2015.[96]In South Africa, the show premiered on e.tv on February 3, 2016. In Serbia, the series premiered on Fox, on January 23, 2016.In the United States, TV One has the exclusive cable rerun rights.

In 2016, a study by The New York Times of the 50 TV shows with the most Facebook Likes found that Empire "is most popular in the Black Belt and in parts of the country with a high percentage of Native Americans".[97]

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