In its freshman season, FOX’s new hit show “Empire” broke records, launched a Cookie-inspired fashion-frenzy, topped the music charts, and brought stellar ratings. And the season finale on Wednesday, March 18, 2015, kept the momentum going.
According to Variety, “Empire” had a “stunning first-year ratings performance Wednesday night with viewership gains for a tenth straight week and a demo delivery not seen by any broadcast series in nearly six years.”
Triangle viewers are also flocking to the show on FOX 50. In the February sweeps period, “Empire” delivered a 10.7 Rating in Adults 25-54 and 13.6 in Women 25-54. That’s a 55% increase over American Idol’s ratings in the time period last year for adults, and a 60% increase for women.
The series finale on March 18th delivered a 15.5 Rating on FOX 50. The metered market average was a 10.7. FOX 50’s rating was 45% higher than the average, and we ranked #11 among the 56 metered markets.
And the buzz keeps going. “Empire” also ranked as the most-Tweeted show on the day of the finale.
In fact, the only complaint FOX 50 Director of Local and New Media Sales Niel Sollod has about the show is that he wished the season had been longer.
“We wish FOX would have kept it on the schedule through May,” said Sollod. “FOX has this new strategy for shorter lived special programming series events.”
No one could’ve anticipated “Empire” would absolutely dominate ratings and become such a huge phenomenon.
“The ratings and the cliffhanger insure the show will be back – hopefully for 22 episodes this time,” said Sollod. “After a dry spell, it’s great to see prime ratings like those produced by ‘Empire’ on FOX.”
