It’s not looking great for Jussie Smollett. Not only did his friend and castmate, Terrence Howard, allegedly drop out of appearing at his court case at the last minute, ‘Empire’ ratings have reportedly dropping by 35%.
Via Love B Scott:
Sources exclusively tell lovebscott.com that Jussie’s ‘Empire’ co-star Terrence Howard was supposed to appear in court alongside Jussie’s family as a show of support, but he ‘was unable to make it’ at the last minute.
It’s not clear why Terrence backed out, but we’ve been hearing from the beginning that despite his public display of solidarity he — as well a lot of the cast & crew — are furious.
Aside from that, ‘Empire’ returned from hiatus on Wednesday night to a 35% ratings dip.
The return of Fox’s Empire from its winter hiatus Wednesday took a tumble from its fall finale, drawing 4.4 million total viewers and a 1.3 rating in the adults 18-49 demographic, the second-lowest numbers to date for the hip-hop drama.
It still was the night’s second highest-rated show in primetime behind CBS’ Survivor (1.5 rating, 7.57M viewers), which also topped the night in viewers.
It was the first episode back for Empire since star Jussie Smollett was arrested and charged with lying about being the victim of an alleged attack in Chicago back in January. The return episode had been in the can for months, well before the alleged assault in the early-morning hours on January 29 and its aftermath.
This whole thing is just a complete mess. Jussie plead not guilty to his disorderly conduct charges. It’s going to be interesting to see how this all plays out in court. As for ‘Empire,’ it is being reported that the future of the show is uncertain.
