Updated:<\/b> Upward adjustments in the finals rendered FOX’s Wednesday night performance even more impressive.<\/p>\n
New 9PM drama “Empire” ended up with a 4.4 adults 18-49 rating and 11.07 million viewers. The episode, which was the series’ third, bested the previous installment by a healthy 10% in the adults 18-49 demo.<\/p>\n
Its lead-in “Idol” enjoyed a season high of its own. The hourlong episode drew a 3.4 with 11.76 million viewers.
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Last week, the second episode of FOX’s “Empire” achieved the rare feat of outperforming the series premiere. On the heels of that showing, FOX renewed “Empire” for a second season.<\/p>\n
This week, it managed to rise again. This Wednesday’s installment of “Empire” bested the prior week’s adults 18-49 and total viewership marks.<\/p>\n
Television’s most buzzworthy show delivered a 4.3 adults 18-49 rating with 10.95 million viewers. Both represent impressive week three increases for the series, which delivered a 4.0 rating and 10.32 million viewers last week.<\/p>\n
The success of “Empire” is clearly attributable to the show itself. The promotion clearly commanded attention, and the on-screen action is clearly keeping people interested. This week’s episode did, however, theoretically benefit from a pair of appealing circumstances.<\/p>\n
One came in the form of “American Idol.” While “Empire” has outdrawn “Idol” in each of its first three airings, the fact that this week’s “Idol” scored a season high 3.3 adults 18-49 rating with 11.53 million viewers certainly did not hurt matters. “Empire” received a stronger lead-in than it did last week.<\/p>\n
The other involved the lighter competitive landscape. For the first time since its premiere, “Empire” (and “Idol”) did not go head-to-head with original installments of ABC’s comedies.<\/p>\n
While “Empire” easily topped the original editions of “Modern Family” and “black-ish” against which it aired in its first two weeks, it is not implausible that their presence kept some potentially interested viewers from watching “Empire.” And insofar as this week’s re-run broadcasts attracted considerably less interest (“Modern Family” drew a 3.0 last week and a 1.5 this week; “black-ish” drew a 1.9 last week and a 1.1 this week), it is possible that some of the available viewers decided to give “Empire” a try.<\/p>\n
But whether or not those circumstances added a slight boost to this specific week’s telecast, it is clear FOX has a monster on its hands with “Empire.” The show is clicking, and the viewers are watching.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[1048,437],"tags":[19,3406,176,255],"adace-sponsor":[],"yoast_head":"\n