Fox’s ‘Empire’ has just started its run for a second season on television and it has smashed the ratings unexpectedly. However, the first season was extremely popular and was an immense critical and commercial success; nobody expected this kind of response for the first episode of the sophomore season as it scored the second best ratings till date. Fox has dominated the opening Wednesday of the season overall, with its ‘Rosewood’ the only series premiere on the night, benefiting from pre-‘Empire’ tune-in to deliver solid scores.
ABC’s comedy arena made a strong return as well with ‘The Middle’ and ‘The Goldbergs’ on par with last year and ‘Modern Family’ and ‘Black-ish’ a hearty second to ‘Empire’ in the intensely competitive arena of the prime time television . CBS’s ‘Survivor’ was a bit down on the ratings but is somehow going strong as it entered its 31st year.
If the preliminary national estimates from Nielsen are to be believed, ‘Empire’ averaged a big 6.5 rating/20 share in adults 18-49 and 16.0 million viewers overall — beating the ratings for all but the show’s final episode from last season. Its 9 p.m. episode on finale night in March averaged a 6.9/21 in 18-49 and 17.62 million of the total viewership. These statistics are enough to understand the massive success the show has enjoyed in the past and the latest season premier is a clear indication that this isn’t slowing down anytime soon.
The demo score for ‘Empire’ was almost twice more than that of the closest competitor (3.1 for ABC’s ‘Modern Family’) and opened 38% more than the second best series of premier week (4.7 for CBS’ ‘The Big Bang Theory’). The only series that has scored a higher 18-49 rating for an episode this year is AMC’s ‘The Walking Dead’, the post apocalyptic zombie drama.
‘Empire’ is an American drama television series which started its successful run on Fox on January 7, 2015. It centers on hip hop music and entertainment company, Empire Entertainment, and the drama among the members of the founders’ family as they fight for control of the company. The show was created by Lee Daniels and Danny Strong, and stars Terrence Howard and Taraji P. Henson.
The high TV ratings are the proof of the popularity among the general population, but talking about the ruthless critics, well, it turns out that they enjoyed it as well while praising the show for its gripping writing and the ‘near-perfect’ casting. The praise has gone towards the cast, particularly Howard and Henson. On Rotten Tomatoes, the first season has a rating of 80%, based on 48 reviews, with an average rating of 7.1/10. The site’s critical consensus reads, “Though heavy on melodrama, ‘Empire’ elevates the night-time soap with its top-notch cast, musical entertainment, and engrossing plots.” On Metacritic the show has a score of 69 out of 100, based on 39 critics, indicating “generally favourable reviews”.
>