‘Empire’ Ratings Plummet 35 Percent After Jussie Smollett Hate Hoax

Ratings for the Fox television show Empire are plummeting after its star, Jussie Smollett was arrested for apparently staging a fake hate crime attack against himself.

According to TheWrap, Empire fell a whole 29 percent in viewers from a comparable episode last year.

Wednesday’s hour was down 13 percent in both the demo and for the overall audience versus the fall finale, and down 35 percent in the demo and 29 percent in viewers from last year’s midseason premiere episode.

As a matter of fact, last night’s “Empire” drew the second-smallest audience and second-worst demo rating ever for “Empire.” The only episode to draw fewer “live” eyeballs (4.229 million) and a lower demo rating (a 1.2) aired on Halloween 2018, which makes sense, as people were out celebrating and not in front of their TVs.

Indeed, Jussie Smollett’s hate hoax has stained the hit show so badly that there is even talk of cancelling it. The cast of Empire is reportedly worried that the show could be cancelled.

According to TMZ, “We’re told people who’ve been working on the show for years are griping they should’ve heard the news one way or another by now, and expected to get word on the fate of the show around 2 weeks ago.”

Following Smollett’s arrest, Fox put out a statement calling the 36-year-old a “consummate professional” and insisted that “he is not being written out of the show.”