Pilot

Pilot is the first episode of Season One and the very first episode of the series. It debuted midseason after American Idol's Season 14 premiere.

Summary
EMPIRE is a powerful new drama that follows LUCIOUS LYON (Academy Award nominee Terrence Howard, “Crash,” “Hustle & Flow”), the head of a music empire whose reign has been unchallenged for years. But all that changes when he learns he has a disease and must choose one of his three sons to take over: ANDRE (Trai Bryers, “90210”), JAMAL (Jussie Smollett, “North,” “The Mighty Ducks”) or HAKEEM (acting newcomer Bryshere Gray, a.k.a. Yazz The Greatest). Complicating matters is their mother and Lucious’ ex-wife, COOKIE (Academy Award and Emmy Award nominee Taraji P. Henson, “No Good Deed,” “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”), who emerges from prison to claim her share. Don’t miss the all-new “Pilot” Series Premiere episode of EMPIRE airing with limited commercial interruption.

Plot
TBA

Behind the Scenes

 * The series premiere was a hit for the network, gaining 9.90 million viewers and a 3.8/11 in the 18-49 ratings demograpic share.
 * The pilot was filmed in Chicago in March 2014 and picked up by Fox Network on May 6th for the 2014-15 television schedule
 * On May 12th, the show was announced to be premiering midseason rather then in the fall
 * On November 19th, the premiere date was announced to be January 7th.