Empire is an American music drama television series created by Lee Daniels and Danny Strong for Fox that ran from January 7, 2015, to April 21, 2020.

On April 30, 2019, Fox renewed the show for the sixth and final season, and the first without Smollett, who was confirmed to not be returning after he was charged with filing a false police report in an incident in which he staged an assault and hate crime.

Lucious Lyon (Terrence Howard) is a hip hop mogul, former drug dealer, and CEO of Empire Entertainment.

Informed of his own imminent early death from ALS, Lucious is forced to choose, from amongst his progeny, a successor who will control his dynasty after his demise.

He begins working to groom one of his three sons to take over the family business – Empire CFO Andre (Trai Byers), R&B singer-songwriter Jamal (Jussie Smollett), and rapper Hakeem (Bryshere Y.

[9] Lucious' ex-wife Cookie Lyon (Taraji P. Henson) is released from prison after serving a 17-year sentence, and also pulls for control of both the company and of her sons.

[42] The fourth season, consisting of eighteen episodes premiered on September 27, 2017, and crossed over with another Fox series co-created by Daniels, Star.

[51] On June 2, 2015, it was announced Adam Rodriguez would join the cast in a recurring role in the second season of Empire, portraying Laz Delgado, a potential love interest for Cookie.

[54] On January 22, 2019, Jussie Smollett filed a police report about a threatening letter sent to Fox Studios, where Empire is filmed.

[55] On January 29, 2019, Smollett reported that he was attacked by two men who shouted "homophobic and racial slurs" at him and then threw an "unknown chemical substance" on him.

[63][64] On June 4, 2019, series co-creator Lee Daniels officially announced that Smollett would not be returning for the sixth and final season.

[65] On December 9, 2021, Smollett was convicted on five of six counts brought against him by Special Prosecutor Dan Webb in the hoax case and is awaiting sentencing, where he faces up to three years in county jail for his fabricated police reports.

[66] Clayton Prince, a Philadelphia native and actor who gained early notoriety for starring as Jericho "Gibs" Gibson in the CBS crime drama television series Dark Justice, sued Daniels over accusations of copyright infringement in 2016.

Prince alleged that Daniels stole the idea for Empire after having pitched it to him at a Greater Philadelphia Film Office event in 2008.

US District Judge Joel Slomsky dismissed the case in April 2017, stating that the plots of both shows were dissimilar enough to rule out any possible copyright infringement.

Because he felt his own musical tastes and desires would be a little too dated for the show, Daniels consulted with people he thought could give him a little more insight, his children.

At the urging of his son and daughter, Daniels contacted super producer Timothy "Timbaland" Mosley, known for scoring hits with some of pop and R&B's biggest artists including Missy Elliott, Madonna, Brandy, Destiny's Child, Justin Timberlake, Jay-Z, Nelly Furtado, Ginuwine, and Aaliyah.

[73] On September 8, 2015, Scott Hoying and Mitch Grassi from Pentatonix arranged a medley of songs from the first season of Empire and posted it on their shared YouTube comedy/music channel, Superfruit.

[76] Empire was set to premiere in Australia on February 19, 2015, on Network Ten;[82] however, a week out from this date it was dumped from the schedule and pushed back.

Shomi, a subscription streaming service co-owned by City's parent company Rogers Communications, began to add new episodes following their U.S. premiere on Fox.

In 2016, a study by The New York Times of the 50 TV shows with the most Facebook Likes found that Empire "is most popular in the Black Belt and in parts of the country with a high percentage of Native Americans".

[111] The site's critical consensus reads, "Though heavy on melodrama, Empire elevates the nighttime soap with its top-notch cast, musical entertainment, and engrossing plots.

David Wiegand wrote in the San Francisco Chronicle: "Almost nothing about Empire, created by Lee Daniels (The Butler), feels original, but after a few minutes, you will stop caring".

[115] Michael Logan of TV Guide described Empire as a "sudsy retooling of King Lear with hip hop as the backdrop" and praised Henson for her portrayal of the character Cookie.