It’s time to bid farewell to “Empire”: Fox has announced that the show’s upcoming sixth season will be its last.
The news was revealed during a call with reporters ahead of Fox’s upfront presentation on Monday, in which new Fox Entertainment head Charlie Collier said that the network would be pulling out all the stops for the music drama’s final bow.
“We are turning the final season into a large TV event — we are trying to go out guns a-blazing,” Collier said, according to Deadline. “You allow fans to lean in and have the ending they deserve.”
Season six will consist of 20 episodes. Though the writers room has yet to meet to begin breaking stories for the end of “Empire,” one character who will almost certainly not be back is Jamal Lyon, played by scandal-plagued star Jussie Smollett.
Smollet had been written out of the final two episodes of season five, following the controversy from his claim that he was the victim of a hate crime back in January in Chicago, where “Empire” is filmed. Local authorities believed that Smollett staged the attack on himself, and he was subsequently charged with multiple felony counts of filing a false police report.
The actor maintained his innocence throughout, and the charges against him were ultimately dropped, in a surprise decision by the local state’s attorney’s office in March. The city of Chicago is now pursuing a civil case against the actor, to recoup the costs of its investigation.
“Empire” was renewed for season six earlier this month, and at the time, Fox said that there were “no plans” for Smollett to return, despite the support of his costars. In his call with reporters on Monday, Collier reiterated that stance, saying, “There’s an option to have Jussie in the series but we have no plans for that.”
No word yet on a season six premiere date. The show will be moving back to its original timeslot — and up against NBC juggernaut “This Is Us” — on Tuesdays at 9 p.m. EST.
Fox is answering the call for “911” fans eager for more stories about dispatchers and first responders, ordering a spinoff series starring beloved TV veteran Rob Lowe (“Parks and Recreation,” “Code Black”).
“911: Lone Star” will be set in Austin, Texas, and has been ordered straight to series by the network. There’s no premiere date yet, but it is expected to debut sometime during the 2019-2020 television season.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Lowe plays “a sophisticated New York cop” who uproots his life and moves to Austin with his son, where he “must try to balance saving those who are at their most vulnerable with solving the problems in his own life.” The trade also says that there’s no word yet on whether any members of the original “911” cast — which features Angela Bassett, Peter Krause, and Jennifer Love Hewitt — will be joining “Lone Star.”
The flagship series was created by Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk, and Tim Minear, who will co-executive produce the spinoff alongside Lowe. Minear will also pull double-duty as showrunner on both series.
“The beauty of having a hit drama like ‘911’ from the genius minds of Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Tim Minear is it allows you to explore thrilling stories as told through an array of distinctive characters,” said Fox Entertainment president Michael Thorn in a statement. “In ‘911: Lone Star,’ they’ve given us a special opportunity to expand the franchise into new territory — literally and figuratively — and we’re thrilled to have the incomparable Rob Lowe headline this new iteration when it joins our schedule next season.”
According to THR, Murphy is hoping that “911” will launch a franchise akin to NBC’s trio of “Chicago” procedural shows, from producer Dick Wolf. Stay tuned to see if any other spinoffs join the “911” fold in the coming years.
Said Wayans at the time: “I’m a 58-year-old diabetic and I’m working 16-hour days.”
Before the Season 3 finale, showrunner Matt Miller told The Wrap that Wayans’ concerns had been “taken care of. ” As he said at the Television Critics Association in February, in response to Wayan’s health needs, “it sort of made us all sit down, roll up our sleeves and say, ‘OK, we’re now really hearing you. What do you need?’”
Apparently, he needed to leave the show. And the accompanying drama.
Despite the casting change-up, “Lethal Weapon” Season 3’s ratings suffered only a slight drop-off from Season 2. But that was still a steep decline from Season 1, according to The Wrap.
Fox is cancelling its freshman series “The Passage” and “Cool Kids.”
“The Passage,” based on Justin Cronin’s books, centered on a 10-year-old girl (Saniyya Sidney), a test subject for a secret government experiment on a dangerous virus. Mark-Paul Gosselaar starred as a federal agent who became her surrogate father as he tried to protect her.
The series premiere performed well, with 5.2 million viewers and a 1.3 rating in adult 18-49. However, ratings declined as the season went on.
The comedy “Cool Kids” starred David Alan Grier, Leslie Jordan, Vicki Lawrence and Martin Mull as four friends who live in a retirement community and are determined to make the third act of their lives the craziest one yet.
Beverly Hills, that’s where the cast of “BH90210” wants to be.
Fox has unveiled the premiere date and a first promo for the meta revival of “Beverly Hills, 90210.” The six-episode dramedy series debuts August 7.
“BH90210” brings back original cast members Jason Priestley, Jennie Garth, Ian Ziering, Gabrielle Carteris, Brian Austin Green, Tori Spelling, and Shannen Doherty. They will play heightened versions of themselves — with a healthy dose of irreverence — as they reunite and consider launching a revival.
But getting the revival going may make for an even more delicious soap than the reboot itself. What will happen when first loves, old romances, friends and frenemies come back together?
The original “Beverly Hills, 90210” first premiered October 4, 1990 and went on to become a seminal piece of pop culture.
The new series was announced just a few days before the tragic death of Luke Perry, and though he was not included in the list of returning cast members, it’s bittersweet to see a reunion without him.
Disney is making some changes to its upcoming movie slate, following the completion of its acquisition of the Fox film studio.
The biggest news is the addition of three untitled “Star Wars” movies. Starting in 2022, a new entry to the franchise will open on the pre-Christmas weekend every other year.
Fox’s “X-Men” spinoff “New Mutants,” which was set to open August 2, has been pushed back to April 3, 2020.
Other Fox films that are moving around. The dramedy “The Art of Racing in the Rain” with Milo Ventimiglia has been pushed up to August 9, while the indie thriller “Ready or Not” will now open August 23.
Pushed back to later dates are the sci-fi film “Ad Astra” with Brad Pitt and Tommy Lee Jones (now September 20) and “Artemis Fowl” (now May 29, 2020).
With the addition of three new “Star Wars” movies, Disney will now have a major franchise tentpole during the year-end holiday season, since it now owns “Avatar,” which will open every other December starting in 2021.
Super Bowl ads have become as highly anticipated as the game itself, but in 2020, there will be fewer of them — though they will be longer.
The NFL and Fox have agreed to cut back on the number of commercial breaks, with each quarter now featuring four instead of five.
Those breaks will be longer, however, running two and a half minutes instead of just two. The net number of ads should remain the same.
This is the first significant change to the format of the Super Bowl broadcast for three decades. The NFL has been testing the fewer-but-longer breaks during regular post-season games.
“For several years now, we have been working with our broadcast partners to make changes to our game broadcasts that are intended to improve the viewing experience,” NFL VP/Broadcasting Cathy Yancy said. “We’ve seen positive results from these efforts.”
Super Bowl ads represent big, big money. CBS, which aired February’s game, took in $382 million in revenue, according to an estimate by Kantar Media.
“By mutual agreement, the studio has negotiated an extension to Jussie Smollett’s option for season six, but at this time there are no plans for the character of Jamal to return to ‘Empire,’” Fox and producer 20th Century Fox TV said Tuesday in a statement.
In January, Smollett claimed to be the victim of a homophobic and racist attack. The case underwent twists and turns, with Smollett later charged with filing a false police report. Those charges were eventually dismissed.
After he was cleared, his co-stars — led by Terrence Howard and Taraji P. Henson — reportedly wrote a letter to Fox advocating for Smollett to return to the show in Season 6.
“We must stand together as a family. A family is there for us in good times and bad,” they wrote.
Jamal was given a happy sendoff, marrying Kai (Toby Onwumere) and leaving for the honeymoon.
In response to Fox’s statement, Smollett’s representative said, “We’ve been told that Jussie will not be on ‘Empire’ in the beginning of the season but he appreciates they have extended his contract to keep Jamal’s future open. Most importantly he is grateful to Fox and Empire leadership, cast, crew and fans for their unwavering support.”
The year has been a rocky one so far for Jussie Smollett, but he has the support of his TV family behind him. Several of the “Empire” star’s cast mates have written a letter to Fox and Disney executives, urging them to bring him back for Season 6, Deadline reports.
In the midst of the investigation, Fox opted to remove Smollett’s character, Jamal, from the final two episodes of Season 5. Now, his Season 6 fate remains unclear. What is clear, however, is that many of the show’s stars want Smollett back. The letter of support was signed by Terrence Howard (Lucious), Taraji P. Henson (Cookie), Bryshere Y. Gray (Hakeem), Trai Byers (Andre), Gabourey Sidibe (Becky), and Nicole Ari Parker (Nicole).
“Together, as a united front, we stand with Jussie Smollett and ask that our co-star, brother and friend be brought back for our sixth season of Empire,” they wrote in part.
The letter went on to endorse Smollet’s character, calling him “kind,” “compassionate,” “honest,” and “filled with integrity.” They highlighted their belief in his innocence and the fact that the case was dismissed.
Fox and Disney TV Studios have yet to comment on the letter. We’ll have to wait to see what they decide to do regarding Smollett.
Read the full letter below.
Dear Charlie, Dana, Michael, Lee, Danny, Francie, Brian, Sanaa, Dennis, and Brett,
Together, as a united front, we stand with Jussie Smollett and ask that our co-star, brother and friend be brought back for our sixth season of Empire.
We understand the past months have been difficult to process—sometimes the headlines brought more confusion than clarity, yet we now have a conclusion to this ordeal. Throughout Empire’s five seasons working with Jussie and watching how he has conducted himself throughout this traumatic event, we have come to know not just the character Jussie portrays, but also truly come to know Jussie’s personal character. He is kind. He is compassionate. He is honest and above all he is filled with integrity. He is also innocent and no longer subject to legal uncertainty with the criminal charges against him having been dropped. We are confident in his lawyer’s assurance that the case was dismissed because it would not have prevailed.
Jussie has shown us on and off the set who he really is as a leader. In addition to being a caring friend and cast member who treats every crew member with love and respect, he has spent time with our families and individually supported each of us. These recent and detailed letters from The Black AIDS Institute, the Rainbow Push Coalition and the City Lights Orchestra shine a light on his commitment to true community service. Just a few months ago, Jussie partnered with the Trevor Project to provide support to their volunteer program that allows LGBTQ youth in crisis access to vital counseling services. Prior to that, he gave every cent from his sold out world tour to numerous charities. He has adopted a school in Chicago, taught songwriting to incarcerated youth at the Cook County Jail last year and bought the family of Kayden Kinckle, a six-year-old, double amputee, a wheelchair accessible van due to his school district not having a wheelchair accessible school bus. He has traveled to South Africa for service as well as to Jamaica to quietly meet about the safety of LGBTQ youth. This was all done without posturing, the need for attention or even discussion.
This is the Jussie we know.
It’s clearer every day that the extreme political climate in our country has only made our system of justice and the court of public opinion more unjust.
It is why now, more than ever, we must stand together as a family. A family is there for us in good times and bad. It can cut through the noise and confusion to understand that there is a person in the center of all this who deserves nothing more than to move forward with his life. We understand that this show is a business. And that business matters to us as well. We are confident our fans will welcome our “Jamal” back into the Empire family as enthusiastically as we will.
That is why we write today to ask you to keep Jussie on the cast so that we can all put this behind us and move forward. Thank you for taking time to hear us. It’s our hope that together we will move into our sixth season as the entire Empire family should.
SINCERELY,
Terrence Howard
Taraji P Henson
Bryshere Y. Gray
Trai Byers
Gabourey Sidibe
Nicole Ari Parker
The Disney/21st Century Fox merger has seemingly yielded another casualty.
On the heels of the cancellation of Fox’s “The Gifted” comes the news that Disney is scrapping the high-profile project “Mouse Guard,” an adaptation of David Petersen’s award-winning comic books.
The story follows a brotherhood of mice in medieval times sworn to protect their fellow rodents. The motion-capture movie had been set to star Idris Elba, Andy Serkis, Thomas Brodie-Sangster and Sonoya Mizuno.
Now that Disney has full control of Fox’s film and TV studios, the company is taking a close look at the development slate.
Deadline says the sudden halt is because Disney didn’t think the project was a good fit, since it is “‘Game of Thrones’ with mice.”
Other sources tell The Hollywood Reporter that the decision had to do with big budget and with the use of effects that veer too closely to upcoming Disney projects like “The Lion King” remake.
“Mouse Guard” can be shopped elsewhere. One of its producers, Matt Reeves (who directed the “Planet of the Apes” movies), has a production deal at Netflix.
