On Jan. 7 Fox debuted their new scripted show Empire starring some of our favorites, Terrence Howard and Howard grad Taraji P. Henson. The two play a couple who went separate ways after Henson, who plays “Cookie,” goes to prison for a drug deal gone bad.

The premiere of the FOX show attracted the attention of 9.8 million viewers. With Empire centering on hip hop culture, and drama (because really, who is not interested in both these days?), it looks as though it will turn out to be a series with longevity.

The money “Cookie” recoups from her drug dealing lifestyle is what starts her Ex-Husband “Lucious Lyons’” (Terrance Howard) multi-million dollar Music Business, Empire Records. The show centers upon Cookies’ return where she is determined to get what she believes she rightfully deserves, and also focuses in on Lucious’ decision on which of his three sons will run the company after he steps down.

Andre (Trai Byers), Jamal (Jussie Smollett), and Hakeem Lyon (Bryshere Gray), are all extremely different from one another, and each of them wants to take over the family business. It all simply comes down to who is right for the job, in Lucious Lyons’ eyes.

The series, being based upon a musical aspect, features music produced by Grammy Award Winning Producer Timbaland. We all know that Timbaland can bang out the hits in the studio, so this show definitely is not falling short of grace in this area.

Reviews for the show are exhibiting fence riding or skeptical tendencies. But it looks as though people are at least going to give the show a chance before they shoot it down completely:

From Hollywood Reporter, “Empire does much more right than it does wrong is encouraging — but it’s always hard to judge the actual quality of a series, or even what that series will eventually be, by just one episode.”

While the show is giving us good acting, the plot does seem to be somewhat broad, nevertheless it is interesting, and will create some curiosity among its viewers.

The premiere was the highest rated among Fox’s shows in the past three years. The next episode will air on Jan. 14 on FOX at 9/8c.

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