Terrence Howard & Taraji P. Henson’s “Empire” Opens With Big Ratings

The reunion of Hustle & Flow co-stars Terrence Howard and Taraji P. Henson on the small screen is off to a great start. The new Fox drama series Empire, featuring Howard and Henson, premiered last night (January 7) to impressive ratings numbers.

Variety reports Empire is the biggest series launch for Fox since 2012. The show’s 3.7 rating/10 share in adults 18-49 and 9.8 million average viewers topped the ratings numbers for the network’s recent new programs Gotham and Red Band Society.

The Lee Daniels (Precious, The Butler) produced series even beat out ABC’s Black-ish in the Wednesday 9:30 pm ET time slot (9.7 million to 6.3 million in total viewers). Empire came in right behind ABC’s other breakout hit How to Get Away With Murder in the highly coveted adults 18-49 demographic (3.8 to 3.7).

This also means three of the top four new series in that demo were fronted by African-American leads – Empire, Black-ish, and How to Get Away With Murder. Viola Davis stars in Murder, and Black-ish is led by Anthony Anderson and Tracee Ellis Ross.

On Empire, Howard plays a former drug dealer that is now the head of a music company. Henson is his ex-wife that returns from prison to claim her share of the company. Gabourey Sidibe, Malik Yoba, Courtney Love, and Naomi Campbell also make appearances on the show.

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