Again, you are welcome to peruse my past posts in the thread which I believe address all your burning questions, Skin. Thanks for stopping by.

There's been past talk about Trai Byers' singing so I thought I'd just drop this here so people could hear him for themselves. No spoilers.

Damn. He had to go and sing one of my favorite Stevie Wonder songs. Now I'm gonna have to slap Rhonda right out of the picture.

As to to international markets, I always felt that the story/character was more important than the color of the person's skin regardless. A lot of these stories are archetypal in tone, meaning they go back to stories and fables already previously told in other incarnations. However I also know that a lot of these international deals are usually contingent on other things. I know the CW and CBS often bundle their television shows together to get a package deal to international markets. Perhaps the same needed to be done with Empire. I know Fox has had an extremely hard time finding hit shows this season so that could be a factor. There are also just cultures that won't accept the show for religious, spiritual or other diversionary reasons. I agree with what a poster said up-thread about marketing the show to Latin markets, it fits the best with the tone of soaps and other telenovelas, and would probably be accepted the best there due to similar formats.

That should be the way it works, but it simply isn't the way business functions when it comes to international markets. If you read the trades, it is glaringly obvious. The excuse that ' Black films don't travel' has been used time and time again and I just hope that this excuse will be finally unveiled as such, an excuse and a flimsy one. Those international markets like Great Britain, that got in on it early, Empire has already become highly successful.

The structure technically would fit in with a telenovela format, but like DeeDee mentioned, Latin American TV is loathe to present more than one dark skinned character (usually downtrodden), so except for Brazil and maybe Colombia, I could see the television broadcasters being reluctant to resistant to bring Empire to there stations. The example of the Venezuelan fashion host referring to Michelle Obama as looking like a character from Planet of the Apes speaks volumes to the type of attitude and prejudices and vitriol that exists in certain cultures, which is a large program that no amount of well written character or richly told story can supplant.

Edited March 16, 201510 yr by DramatistDreamer

http://www.eonline.com/news/635905/empire-finale-s-nothing-to-lose-remix-will-be-your-new-favorite-jam-listen-now?cmpid=tweol-manual

I must say that this the 2nd song I like from Jamal But nothing beat young Andre & Lucious duet.

Edited March 17, 201510 yr by MoTheGreat

Those international markets like Great Britain, that got in on it early, Empire has already become highly successful.

I am surprised that the UK acquired it so quickly and is now airing it. I lived in London for an extended period before and it usually takes them months to get series and air them. I know I was waiting to watch some Fox and CW shows there and they were 6-7 months behind in airings. Doing a quick wiki search it seems like it premiered in Australia to weaker ratings but a good demo, and Canada's airing it now too, so it seems to be making its way.

Edited March 17, 201510 yr by Skin

THR finale article with some spoilage.

Jussie on the finale. Some more minor SPOILAGE.

Songs from the finale (including a Jamal/Hakeem rework of Lucious' old hit "What the DJ Spins" from Episode 2):

Edited March 17, 201510 yr by Vee

No spoilers here, so don't worry. A very interesting article on how the show's success has affected the producers as well as executives at Fox.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/18/arts/television/empire-the-meteor-that-never-fell-to-earth.html

The Empire soundtrack has toppled Madonna.

Ta'Rhonda Jones on Porsha. (She originally tried out for Tiana.)

Vulture weighs in on Empire's success.

Taraji talks to EW.

Jussie and Yazz meet the fans.

Edited March 18, 201510 yr by Vee

No spoilers: Empire Showrunner Ilene Chaiken on the Show’s Overnight Success and the Two-Hour Finale

No spoilers: What “Empire” Means For Blackness On Television

Producer/staff writer Wendy Calhoun on the writing process.

At an Empire finale party. We are turnt up!!!!

Empire starting soon and I haven't even recovered from today's Bold and Beautiful yet. lol

Liveblog!