Fox has renewed freshman dramas Empire and Gotham for Season 2, the network announced at the Television Critics Association winter press tour on Saturday.
http://tvline.com/2015/01/17/gotham-renewed-season-2-fox-empire/#tvline-comments-580478

I saw Empire got renewed for a second season on Grace Geagel's Facebook page. Grace plays Terrence Howard's woman. She's very cute and I want her. I love lightskin black women.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/02/04/why-empire-gets-bigger-every-week.html

Taraji P. Henson's Cookie is "the greatest character to have slithered across our TV screens in a very long time," says Kevin Fallon. But she's not the only reason the Fox series has become a hit. "The show is total nonsense," he adds. "It's also endlessly fun, captivating, and, thanks to the tragic emotional core of Jamal's coming out story, surprisingly moving. As a TV success story, its rise has been unparalleled. There have been countless thinkpieces attempting to parse out why, but the answer is actually quite simple: it's big, black, and beautiful—in every glorious, celebratory sense of those three words." PLUS: Examining Empire's fashion (http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/style-blog/wp/2015/02/03/how-empire-charts-the-rise-of-hip-hop-through-fabulous-fashion/), prof says "Empire" is "from the black experience and speaks to it," (http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/columnists/verne-gay/empire-on-fox-authenticity-of-black-experience-brings-huge-success-1.9885403) and why Empire should dump its badly outdated soundtrack (http://theconcourse.deadspin.com/empire-is-a-great-show-with-a-badly-outdated-soundtrack-1683784037?rev=1423078848427).

http://uproxx.com/tv/2015/02/how-did-empire-become-the-fastest-growing-network-drama-in-the-past-10-years/

What is it about Fox’s mega-hit Empire that has made it one of the most successful TV shows in the past decade? The ratings for the first episode proved there was already a built-in audience for a show detailing the drama behind an urban music label: 9.9 million people watched it. Many TV shows have their biggest ratings for their debuts; everyone checks it out, says “Meh,” then goes back to their regularly scheduled programs. Not Empire. This week’s episode hit 13.8 million viewers — a 39% increase from the pilot — in the coveted 18-49 demographic. No show has grown that quickly and immensely since House in 2004.

With a cornucopia of viewing mediums and even more programs to watch these days than ever before, these are monster numbers. When I Love Lucy was a ratings juggernaut in the early ’50s — the 1952-53 season (67.3 Nielsen) is the highest rated TV season of all time — it benefitted from having little-to-no competition or alternatives. Unless there’s only one broadcast showing the same thing over the 2,000 channels you own, that record will never be beaten. A better watermark is American Idol, which gained popularity in an era where we have streaming options along with a scores of cable channels. The 2005 season of Idol is the best performing season of a TV series (17.6 Nielsen) since the 1998 season of ER. With Empire’s ratings steadily climbing for seven weeks, it’ll be interesting to see what the average viewership is at the end of the season and how it compares to that season of Idol.

Much of the show’s success can be owed to the music. Idol — and then Glee — proved that music is a driving factor of viewership in a primetime network slot no matter the genre. Since we’re talking about genre, “urban music” — or hip-hop and R&B — comprises 36% of the top 25 songs on Billboards Hot 100 chart. It’s popular, and a show that can take advantage of that built-in interest, like Empire, is ahead of the game from the start. (It’s actually surprising that the show’s original music is not topping the iTunes right now.)

Speaking of the original music, it’s awesome. Super producer Timbaland put together a slick soundtrack, with each episode seemingly debuting a new song to bob your head to while watching the Lyon family tear each other apart. It’s a smart device. People who don’t love the show will still tune in for a fresh new jam each week.

Another factor making the show a ratings success is race. Let’s face it, shows featuring an almost all African-American cast are few and far between; it’s basically a niche market. Empire capitalizes on that by providing a show that’s highly polished and produced — much more than the programs on BET — and with seasoned actors that are well-known (Taraji P. Henson, Terrence Howard). That’s called cornering the market, and Empire does it successfully.

There’s one other thing making Empire the biggest show of the season: variety. It’s the spice of life, and Empire is sprinkling it on damn near every scene. If you haven’t noticed by now, this modern-day soap opera has no qualms with touching upon every single charged topic it can get its hands around. There are issues with homosexuality, extortion, murder, struggles with addiction, ALS, adultery, relationships between old and young (a.k.a. cradle-robbing), money-laundering, struggles with mental instability and bi-polar syndrome, incarceration, drug-dealing, politics, and much more. In fact, one of the only topics that doesn’t get a lot of play is racism, which is refreshing (although Courtney Love does drop the phrase “Black Shack” in one episode).

Creators Danny Strong and Lee Daniels have found the formula for creating a hit show by — on the surface — catering to a niche market. But, with the slew of ideas they confront in the series, they are catering to everyone. See what they did there?

Will this new Empire TV series have full seasons of 20+ episodes or will it be a "limited"/abbreviated-seasons-only series (like How to Get Away with Murder)?

http://www.tvinsider.com/article/930/empire-is-a-big-hit-for-tv-but-why-hasnt-radio-embraced-it-yet-analysis/

The Fox drama's soundtrack is No. 1 on the Billboard charts, topping Madonna, yet it's barely getting any radio airplay.

I won't be watching Empire anymore because it's boring. Terrence Howard is probably gonna die anyway because he has a health issue on the show. If he dies, the show is gonna suck without him and it won't last. He's a very good actor and he should do movies again. I don't think this show will last past season 2. I don't know how Gabourey Sidibe got on the show as Terrence's secretary because she's a ugly fat b*tch hahahahahahahahaha. Lee Daniels who's the director could've gotten somebody cute to play that character.

http://grantland.com/hollywood-prospectus/kingdom-came-notes-on-empire-and-the-state-of-black-television-drama/

"I've never seen anything that gets away with everything Empire gets away with — murder, basically," says Wesley Morris. "I've never seen anything on network television this shameless; this overwritten yet perfectly plotted; this ludicrously costumed, art-decorated, choreographed, soundtracked, acted, and directed; this hormonal, this … black."

I won't be watching Empire anymore because it's boring. Terrence Howard is probably gonna die anyway because he has a health issue on the show. If he dies, the show is gonna suck without him and it won't last. He's a very good actor and he should do movies again. I don't think this show will last past season 2. I don't know how Gabourey Sidibe got on the show as Terrence's secretary because she's a ugly fat b*tch hahahahahahahahaha. Lee Daniels who's the director could've gotten somebody cute to play that character.

Please stop with your degrading posts about black women. It's annoying and demeaning. Gabourey got the role because Lee Daniels directed her in Precious and I guess he thought she was good and talented enough to get the role. Not everyone on TV has to be thin.

Stop being soft LOL. Black women get dissed all the time by black men. Black men don't wanna see Gabourey's fat ugly ass on tv hahahahahahahahahahahaha. Precious is the only type of character that she can play hahahahahahahahahahahaha.