A few weeks ago, I reported that Fox’s hit show “Empire,” broke a 22 year old ratings record in the history of the network (HERE). However, if you think that show may have peaked (as some sources have reported this week), au contraire.

In fact the show has continued to break rating records for Fox TV, rising another 4% this week, for a series ratings high, with a total viewership of 12 million people.

Since premiering on January 7th, the audience has risen week by week, from 9.9 million viewers, to 10.3 million, to 11.1 million, to 11.4 million, to 11.5 million, and now just under 12 million.

In fact, not only is the show wiping out its competition on the other networks in its time slot, according to Variety, it’s “the first program in the history of Nielsen’s People Meters (going back to 1991) to grow in total viewers, with each of its four episodes following its premiere.”




And according to Nielsen, the cities in which “Empire” is doing the best are Atlanta, Detroit and St. Louis, with a 25 rating share (that is the percentage of TVs actually tuned on to the show, out of all the TVs turned on during its time slot). It also did a 21 share in Washington, D.C. and Chicago and Philadelphia both with a 20 share.

Naturally, the show has been controversial with viewers – some pro, such as Shannon Houston, who recently wrote about it on S & A (HERE), or con, like rock music journalist Laina Dawes’s recent piece on Alternet (HERE). But then I’m sure this was what Lee Daniels dreamed of – a show that everyone would be talking about.

The last time I wrote about “Empire,” a lot of you blew a gasket, because I said I didn’t think much of it, since it was a rehash of every hoary, worn out primetime soap opera cliché from the last 30 years, and a heavy dose of “The Lion in Winter,” except it has ratchet rich black people in it.

Well guess what? I still feel the same way, so sue me or get a life.