Fox needed a big hit this season and Empire was exactly what the doctor ordered. The new show, fronted by Terrence Howard and created by The Butler’s Lee Daniels and Danny Strong, scored the best ratings Fox has seen in years for a new show.
Empire scored 9.8 million viewers Wednesday night. Final ratings from Nielsen show that it drew a 3.8 rating in the 18-49 demographic. According to Deadline, that ties the 2014-2015 TV season high for a new show with ABC’s How To Get Away With Murder. That show also debuted to a 3.8 rating in the key demo.
According to Entertainment Weekly, Empire also had the best debut for a Fox show since 2012’s Touch with Kiefer Sutherland. Hopefully, Empire has a much better future, since that show only lasted two seasons before being cancelled.
That means it also did better than Gotham, Fox’s other heavily promoted new show of the season. That show remains the only freshman Fox show to earn a full 22-episode first season. Fox has failed to produce other hits, as Utopia was pulled quickly and Mulaney, Red Band Society and Gracepoint failed to draw audiences.
Other good news for Fox: people stayed for American Idol, which drew 10.9 million viewers and a 3.2 18-49 rating. Sure, that sets new premiere lows in both categories for Idol, but it was at least better than the Season 13 finale.
image courtesy of Kristin Callahan/ACE/INFphoto.com