Upswitch
Team Owner
It went downhill when timberland left and took his beats with him.It went downhill when they killed off that white girl
It went downhill when timberland left and took his beats with him.It went downhill when they killed off that white girl
Empire’ To End After Upcoming Sixth Season; Still “No Plans” For Jussie Smollett Return
May 13, 2019 6:00am
FOX
The reign of Empire on Fox is coming to an end next year.
Just two weeks after the Charlie Collier-run Fox Entertainment renewed Lee Daniels and Danny Strong’s hip hop drama for a sixth season and showed controversy ladened Jussie Smolletttowards the exit door, it was announced today on Fox’s Upfront call that the self described “groundbreaking cultural phenomenon” of Empire will be canceled once Season 6 s done.
“We are turning the final season into a large TV event, we are trying to go out guns a blazing,” Collier proclaimed on the call of Empire‘s 20-episode last round “You allow fans to lean in and have the ending they deserve,” the CEO added.
Questioned about the possibility that the legally challenged Smollett could return for the final season, Collier dodged and replied with language reminiscent of last month’s press release. “There’s an option to have Jussie in the series but we have no plans for that,” he said, noting that the writers’ room for Season 6 hasn’t even been opened yet.
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Dropped less than a week after the fifth season of Empire wrapped up, with its Casablanca-ish finale, Monday’s news also shifts the Chicago filmed series back to its original Tuesday slot at 9 PM. That’s a primetime team-up with an also moved The Resident for the night for its third season.
The shift to Tuesdays also puts the already ratings bedeviled Empire right up against NBC’s heavy hitter This Is Us.
On the up side for fans of the Taraji P. Henson and Terrence Howard-led series, planning for the resetting sixth season of Empire is still very much in the early stages, as the Fox Entertainment boss essentially said today and showrunner Brett Mahoney told me on May 8, which leaves plenty of time to craft an proper conclusion.
The axing of Empire follows the cancelling of co-creator Daniels’ 20th Century Fox TV produced Star on May 10 after three seasons, which Collier today called “difficult.” The Strong EP’d and also Disney-owned TCFTV produced midseason replacement legal drama Proven Innocent was pink slipped by Fox the network after one season on May 11.
Caught between lower than expected ratings and the costs of doing business with a former corporate sibling, the Starand Proven Innocent cancellations, painful as they were for those concerned, were pretty straightforward.
On the other hand, amidst other long in the tooth issues, Empire was pummeled this year by new ratings lows and the every spiraling controversy over the January 29 presumed hate crime that the Jamal Lyon portraying Smollett is now alleged by Chicago Police and prosecutors to have perpetrated against himself.
Things were still looking good several weeks ago for a longer run when options for key cast like the once and now once again music moguls the Lyon clan of matriarch Cookie (Henson) patriarch Lucious , (Howard), on-screen sons Bryshere Y. Gray, and Trai Byers, along with Gabourey Sidibe and Nicole Ari Parker were sewed up last month for another season, I hear.
Having portrayed openly gay middle son Jamal Lyon on the series from its early 2015 debut, Fox Entertainment and now Disney-owned 20th Century Fox TV “negotiated an extension to Jussie Smollett’s option for Season 6.”
However, with the Smollett character already written out of the last two episodes of Season 5 months ago as the situation around him became more convoluted and the Chicago police investigation deepened, the network and the studio added on April 30 that “at this time there are no plans for the character of Jamal to return to Empire.”
Now, there are no more plans for Empireto return to Fox passed its next upcoming cycle. A fact that would have seemed absurd just a few years ago.
In its first and second seasons, the blockbuster drew in big number from almost every facet of the American television viewing public. In fact, breaking the status quo of steady decline, for a while Empire was on a winning trajectory of growing almost every week in the ratings to new highs.
While currently Fox’s second best performing drama after 9-1-1, the heights of those early days have long since passed. Yet, today’s cancellation comes as a bit of a surprise after the March 20 promotional spotlight the so-called “New Fox” put on the show as a crown jewel once the $71.3 billion acquisition by Disney went through, the possibility has been of Empire has been there for a while.
Ultimately, having scored more seasons than most in today’s Peak TV era, Empire fell prey to forces primarily outside of its own small screen borders.
The show was felled in part by a combination of the carving that streaming services and delayed viewing have made on the Big 4 and their ratings of late and Disney’s recently regulatory approved big bucks hovering up of primary Fox assets like the TCFTV studio.
Pour into that a strategic directional alteration as the Murdoch-owned Fox network’s solidified an early decision to fill up a fair chunk of its two hours a night of primetime programming with high cost and high return sports like the NFL and WWE’s Smackdown.
Landing on that increasing rickety structure for the future of Empire like a fatal ceiling falling on Game of Thrones‘ Cersei Lannister and her brother Jaime, was the still swirling Smollett assault scandal that tumbled right into the cut throat politics of Chicago.
Insisting on his innocence in the early morning incident of January, first time felony offender Smollett on March 26 a pulled a lucky straw with overwhelmed prosecutors that saw 16 felony charges erased and the case sealed.
The actor was facing years behind bars for supposedly staging that racist and homophobic attack on himself at the end of the first month of the year. An agreement he instead forfeited a $10,000 bond and was given credit for a then recent stint of 20 hours of community service.
An almost immediate storm of protest rose up from the likes of early and empathic supporter Donald Trump, soon-to-be ex-Mayor Rahm Emanuel plus the Chicago PD, the First Assistant Cook County State’s Attorney Joseph Magats quicky tried to deflect for his office by telling local media that he believed Smollett was guilty of staging the attack himself.
Handed the case after Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx oddly recused herself under what has become increasing criticism, Magats also said the deal and the sealing of the case did not exonerate Smollett in any way – AKA, the whole thing was a PR nightmare that no one was really ever waking up from.
Since then, new lawsuits have gone back and forth, with the city going after Smollett after the actor declined to repay $130,000 for the costs of the investigation. Alleged attack collaborators Ola and Abel Osundairo sued Smollett’s lawyers Mark Geragos and Tina Glandian for defamation on April 23.
As Deadline exclusively revealed on April 24, Smollett received open backing from Henson, Howard and other key cast mates in a pleading correspondence advocating the return of the actor and his character toEmpire for Season 6. Politely received by recipients Collier, Daniels ,Strong, DisneyTV Studios and ABC Entertainment chair Dana Walden and Fox Entertainment president Michael Thorn, the lengthy April 19 date letter wasn’t enough, as we now know, to a institute a resurgence in Smollett’s favor – or for Empire over long time either.
Empire‘s sixth and final season is presumed to launch in mid-September
Thank you!! Empire was a soap opera its supposed to be over the top. I grew up watching Dallas and Dynasty and these shows were pure fantasy and over the top..and not always well written but their fan base kept them in for years and the ratings were always high. Not all black shoes are going to be the Cosby Show ..not all black shoes are going to show us as highly educated even tempered angels ...because we at not ..no one is regardless of race..we have a lot of different dimensions too which is what makes us great Blackish shows professional black parents ..but it gets dragged on here too. Some of the same people complaining about certain shows make us look bad probably be on here talking crazy and watching reality shows theirselves.but it's ok because it's all strictly for entertainment any way...no one lives their lives based on a show
I'm curious to see how they do up against This is Us in the fall. If they thought their ratings were bad before.
I bet Terrance Howard wishes he would of taken that pay cut in Iron man 2 so he could have that Avenagers Endgame money.
I don't think FOX expected the reaction it is getting over the cancellation of STAR.
I am pissed the network said it was a hard choice. They just didn't want STAR .
The ratings never recovered since november, the lowest rated episode was the second to last but those aren't weak numbers by 2019 standards.Exactly! They didn't understand the demographic of the audience for Star: People of all races, people 60 and under with the teen to 20 somethings being the highest, and the LGBT community. I'm surprised that Fox didn't realize that the teen to 20 something demographic are very influential in terms of trends and popularity in the entertainment industry, especially considering that the girls in that show fall in to that age group.
The explanation they gave was a bunch of words that added up to this: bµllsh!t!
"Star raked in solid numbers but hit a ratings low last November". So they (Fox) want us to believe and accept this dumb excuse without question. They're cancelling Star even though it has solid numbers. Then they're going to pull the month of November out of their asses. So forget the other months from September to May, just focus on November! What is happening in November? People are out buying food for Thanksgiving and making preparations to drive or fly out to see relatives. Ask any U.S. grocery store chain and they will tell you that the month of November is the month with the highest grossing revenue for food purchases. November in the U.S. is basically Thanksgiving month. It's just like TV executives know that it's not uncommon for even successful TV series to have low ratings on Halloween because people are out trick or treating with their kids or partying that day.
Also unlike "Empire", Star's writing quality started off good (like Empire), but unlike Empire it has remained good and consistent. Fox doesn't want to come out and say that they just want to cut ties with Lee Daniels, that's all.
Cookie and Terrance looks like those jobs area about dry up real quick for y’all.
Season one was good but after that Empire was nothing but a bunch of new repeats. They remixed the same storyline year after year. I stopped watching and they still were on the same plot. We shouldn’t be forced to watch bad television just because the cast is Black. To me, that’s disrespectful. We deserve to see good acting and good writing too. Empire had none of that. Since Terrence will be out of job, maybe we can finally get The Best Man Wedding. Maybe this will bring Taraji back down to earth because she became beyond cocky when Empire took off. Hope the cast saved their money.
I think several members of the cast and show runners became cocky. Did they actually think they had that much power over Fox and Disney that they could send them a letter demanding Jussie return. They got what they deserved IMO. I wonder if Lee Daniels will be calling Jussie his son now.
I remember seeing Dominique Devereaux for the first time back then..and even as a child I felt it was something special to see...She was GOURGEOUS and GLAMOROUS!!! It gave me a sense of pride..she wasnt the maid or some downtrodden black woman..she was Blake's half sister and she wore diamonds and beautiful gowns just like Krystal and Alexis..she was a bad bish..lolI hear you. I grew up on what I call the heyday of nighttime soaps (the 80s), and I remember how groundbreaking it was just to have a ONE black main cast character on tv (Diahann Carroll's Dominique Devereaux on "Dynasty"). Real fans of the genre know it is escapist, absurd, and over the top fluff - and I don't see any reason why we can't have that with black casts on mainstream television as well.
...oh, and here's a really fun piece of nighttime soap trivia from Diahann's autobiography "The Legs Are the Last to Go" : she and Joan Collins were actually friends in real life, and the year before Dynasty came along they were having dinner at a mutual friend's house commiserating on how miserable it was to be over 40 and overlooked in Hollywood, and were both wondering what their next steps in their careers and lives were going to be: Lo and behold Joan's old arse booked Dynasty, and it put a fire under Diahann's butt to let Aaron Spelling know it was time to break even more ground by introducing a black character to the arena. She campaigned, harassed him (good-naturedly) and made sure she was out, about, seen at the right venues and muscled her way into a guest-starring performance at a tribute event for him: he eventually caved to the vision she painted of the glamourous Dominique Devereaux and boom, was instrumental in spearheading the creation of the nighttime soap world's first black, no-nonsense, ultra glamourous bish. The experience was a two-fold victory for her because she was able to break ground as a black woman and celebrate with her friend that they were able to break the mold barring 40+ women from glamourous leading roles on tv.
Anyway, there's room for everybody and all kinds of black stories to be told on scripted television. I too would much rather do away with these reality shows.
I never paid attention to the show runners or the other cast members. Taraji’s attitude stuck out the most to me because I followed her career since the beginning. The way she acted at the Golden Globes when she won, the way she comes across on social media and in interviews just turned me off. She doesn’t post as much anymore after a few of her movies didn’t blow up at the box office.
As for Jussie, his career is over.
Thank you. I see that they have also canceled Steve Harvey show to replace with Kelly Clarkson. Who the hell do they think will watch that. Then he not on little Big Shots no more he getting replaced by another rich white lady McCarthy something.I liked Lethal Weapon. It was one of the few buddy/action series out there that didn't leave you feeling emotionally drained or grossed out by being too somber or depressing.
Inspired your post: here's special commentary, by the way, from 90's "Living Single" star Erika Alexander (Maxine Shaw) on the rise and fall of Black TV, where she breaks down how executives move, and how fragile the system is in terms of employment security for black actors as a whole. It's from the podcast "The Nod".
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The Rise and Fall of Black TV (feat. Erika Alexander) | The Nod
She covers "being under the narcissistic White Male Gaze" and how it limits the type of projects greenlit for blacks, Bill Cosby & shouldering the responsibility of representing the black race honorably, the heyday of Golden Black Hollywood in the 90s and how the decline began w/ redirection to a concentrated cultural ghetto on tv, and how hard it is to survive when the bottom falls out.
I will say this: most nighttime soap operas hit a wall in their 5th year. It's a rarity that the retain their steam after year five. The writer's room on Empire is comprised of 12-15 people given the season. While it was always clear what the template and inspiration for the show were as it began (Shakespeare's King Lear and Aaron Spelling's Dynasty & The Colbys), by season 4 of Empire it was clear to me that the mass story arc wasn't thought out through to the end. So now we have all of these sloppy loose ends everywhere and writing that is anything but cohesive.
Outside of that, I think it was a mistake to kill Kingsley so early: the kingdom needs three heirs. With Jamal gone there's a strong chunk of family dynamic that goes with him, and personally, I found that having the triad of brothers to play off of itself was very effective. At the end of King Lear all the kids die anyway, so meh, who knows, maybe we'll see them all killed off for the Empire series close.
It was good while it lasted, though. I just never expected it to last forever because, well...soap cycles. They peak by year four. Star, btw, is only in Season 3 and they've already pulled out the "Dynasty Moldavian Massacre" for its season finale, so I don't expect things to improve from there. I have a feeling everybody is onto looking for their next project if they already, in fact, don't have other work lined up.
The heart of the show is Cookie and the music and that hasn’t been good since season 1 either. I remember I was running my Empire playlist out season 1!! Their music was better than the radio.
Then all of a sudden everything was Jussie and those love scenes and promoting all of those Hispanics. Why? They don’t do that for us.
I feel like they could have evolved Cookies character much more too.
The show had promise but Lee is too arrogant and prob thought he was creating Emmy level material when it was all garbage.
Once Jussie started getting all of that bad publicity I knew he was going to be fired then they would cancel the show. He is the face of Empire. Lee should have been more diverse in his writing and storylines.
I’m mad that man's last name is "Magats".
Fox is doing well now so time to scrap the Black shows
I know they better leave my 9-11 alont.
BTW Disney owns Fox now too? White white white.
I knew this was coming after #JussieGate
The first season had the perfect balance of focusing on all of the characters.
By season 2 it was the Jamal show. They were clearly catering to the LBGT community and I knew then they were going downhill.
The heart of the show is Cookie and the music and that hasn’t been good since season 1 either. I remember I was running my Empire playlist out season 1!! Their music was better than the radio.
Then all of a sudden everything was Jussie and those love scenes and promoting all of those Hispanics. Why? They don’t do that for us.
I feel like they could have evolved Cookies character much more too.
The show had promise but Lee is too arrogant and prob thought he was creating Emmy level material when it was all garbage.
Once Jussie started getting all of that bad publicity I knew he was going to be fired then they would cancel the show. He is the face of Empire. Lee should have been more diverse in his writing and storylines.
For real!It went downhill when timberland left and took his beats with him.
WRONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!