March 19, 2024

Jussie Smollett Won’t Be on Final Episodes of ‘Empire’ Season

There are several corporate changes that may determine Mr. Smollett’s fate as well.

In a matter of weeks, 20th Century Fox Television, the studio that produces “Empire,” will be folded into The Walt Disney Company after Disney closes on its purchase of many of Fox’s entertainment properties. Suddenly Disney’s opinions of Mr. Smollett will become a vital part of the calculus.

Likewise, the Fox broadcast network, which is not part of the sale and will still be owned by the Murdoch family, has a new set of leaders that will guide a different path for the network. It will be up to those leaders, led by the Fox Entertainment chief executive Charlie Collier, to decide whether they want “Empire” on the air and if they want to include Mr. Smollett.

The producers who announced that Mr. Smollett would be removed from the final two episodes this season include Lee Daniels, Danny Strong, Brett Mahoney, Brian Grazer, Sanaa Hamri, Francie Calfo and Dennis Hammer.

Mr. Smollett plays Jamal Lyon, the gay scion of a hip-hop dynasty. The character is a fan favorite and Mr. Strong tweeted as recently as a week ago that Mr. Smollett is the “third lead” of the series. Terrence Howard and Taraji P. Henson are the stars of the show.

There is plenty of recent precedent of producers removing actors from TV series when real life events force their hand. Charlie Sheen was fired from the CBS sitcom “Two and a Half Men” in 2011 and replaced after several episodes of bizarre and bad behavior. Kevin Spacey was fired from “House of Cards” after he was accused of sexual misconduct in 2017. And ABC spun-off “Roseanne” into a new comedy, “The Conners,” after Roseanne Barr posted a racist tweet last year.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/22/business/media/empire-jussie-smollett-fox.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

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