Hey, fellow "Empire" fans. We have great news for you guys. It turns out that FOX never questioned if your favorite show would be back for a new season 4. They gave it the greenlight back in early January 2017 when the show was on its winter break. According to the people over at TV Line, the huge announcement was made at the 2017 "Television Critics Association" winter press tour.
The number one drama
FOX said that "Empire" continues to rank as broadcast TV’s number one drama in the 18-49 demographics. It has been holding that prestigious rank since it launched way back in January 2015.
That means fans can definitely look forward to seeing more cast interviews, delicious spoiler scoops and clips, promo photos, and all that good stuff in the upcoming days, weeks and months. We're actually hoping to hear something later this week, possibly tomorrow.
The big season 3 finale airs tonight — news outlets will be hounding the producers for some initial season 4 scoops. We'll certainly be on the lookout for those.
Another 18 episodes
TV Line was also able to confirm that the new season 4 will indeed deliver up another 18 episodes. I wish they would give it a full 22 episodes but it is what it is. The Variety news team also echoed those episode numbers.
Along with the show's huge ratings, it has received quite a bit of prestigious award nominations that includes the Emmys, the Grammys and Golden Globes.
It landed a Golden Globe win when Taraji P. Henson won one for "Best Actress In A Drama Series" back in 2016. The show has been nominated for these awards for all the three seasons that it has been on the air.
Now, it's time for us to look at the ratings and viewership numbers that the show's current 3rd season drew in. Season 3 premiered to a huge audience of over 10 million viewers and scored a demographic rating of 4.16 in the 18-49 age groups.
That was just for the United States audience.
On a bit of a sad note, those ratings numbers were down a negative 37 percent from the season 2 finale episode. The viewership numbers were also down a negative 32 percent from the season 2 finale.
Ratings fell considerably
The ratings and viewership fell considerably over the course of this season but they still had so many viewers that it didn't matter.
The last episode 17 that aired on May 17 brought in 6.1 million viewers and scored a demographic rating of 2.17. Hopefully, those numbers won't continue to drop that drastically in the new season 4. It's expected to premiere sometime in the Fall 2017. Stay tuned.
