It’s no secret that Jussie Smollett is fighting a major legal case.
The Empire star is facing 16 felony disorderly conduct charges for an alleged fake racist and homophobic attack that Police claim was staged in February.
Though the star’s struggles are personal it appears they’re trickling over to his career…. and sounds like execs aren’t too happy about it!
On Wednesday night “Empire” has it’s mid season premier and compared to the show’s last episode, Nielsen ratings were down.
According to Variety.com, When it aired on Fox “Empire drew a 1.3 rating in adults 18-49 and 4.4 million viewers. That is down a little over 10% in both measures compared to the midseason finale in December.”
Despite the fact ratings were low compared to the Show’s orginal number, it was still one of the highest rated of the night.
It came in second to “Survivor” which had a
1.5 rating, (7.6 million).
The show has already started to make separations from the actor. Just a day after Smollett was arrested by Chicago Police for allegedly staging an attack, the producers for the Fox show announced the actor would not be making a comeback in the last two episodes of season 5.
Here’s the thing. While here has been no official announcement of whether or not The actor will be gone for good, money talks!
The fact the actor is bringing bad press can’t be good for a show that makes more money with more viewers.
By: Toi Creel
