After pulling-off a winning streak of consistent ratings growth for 13 episodes straight, Empire finally experienced its first slight dip in the ratings this week with the airing of Episode 2, but overall it still sits as the highest rated series on television, and its lowest ratings still easily beats out the highest ratings from shows like ‘Power’ and ‘Ballers’ by a huge margin. The futon critics have been throwing around a few random thoughts on why some folks may have tuned-out from the series though, and it’s not only because of the growing list of unnecessary celebrity cameos that now threatens the shows credibility..
With the show having a primarily Black audience people aren’t taking too lightly to the fact that none of the successful sons seem to be dating within their race, nor are folks feeling Lee Daniels trying to pass Jussie Smollett off as some type of uni-sex heart throb or “boss” figure that appeals to both men and women, he looks uncomfortable and it’s kinda hard to watch. Viewers are making it very clear that their not really interested in seeing Jamal’s bare bird chest being shown in almost every scene, and have even less interest in watching him sing to his brother with dim lighting, candles and a piano as the backdrop..
So whatever the case, Lee Daniels’ shoving his social politics down peoples throats may not work out as well this round as it did last time, but we’ll see..
-Variety reports;
According to national estimates from Nielsen, “Empire” averaged a 5.5 rating in adults 18-49 and 13.74 million viewers overall. This is 18% lower than last week’s 6.7 rating (16 million) in the demo and puts it in line with where the show was about two-thirds of the way through its 12-episode run last winter.
New Morris Chestnut drama “Rosewood” (6.24 million viewers overall) declined a reasonable 17% from its premiere to a still-fairly good number and is the network’s No. 1 new series of the fall. It once again showed signs of benefiting from pre-“Empire” tune-in, rising nearly 30% in its second half-hour. –Variety
