The Lyons will continue to roar! Fox has announced that the popular music-centric drama, Empire, has been renewed for a fifth season. The series is currently in the midst of its fourth season, which will continue with a new episode this week. The show's renewal is not a huge surprise. Empire has been a Fox fixture ever since it premiered in 2015 to major buzz and huge ratings. While subsequent seasons have seen a decline in the latter, they are still numbers many shows wish they could obtain and maintain.
Fox has not revealed what the episode count for Season 5 will be. Empire's first season consisted of 12 episodes, while its second, third, and fourth seasons comprised 18. When Fox announced Empire's Season 4 renewal, they did not initially disclose the number of episodes for that installment either. We do know one thing about Season 5. Deadline reports that Brett Mahoney, who acted as interim showrunner for the second half of Season 4, will permanently replace Ilene Chaiken as Empire's full-time showrunner in Season 5.
While Empire fans will have to wait to learn about the episode count for Season 5, they did not have to wait for Season 4 to end to learn that Fox had renewed the show, so there's no need to worry that the show will end forever on a cliffhanger. The current season only has four episodes left before it signs off for Season 4.
While Fox has been why with Season 5 details so far, the final episodes of Season 4 should help fans learn what to expect. Tonight's episode revolves around Lucious (Terrence Howard) trying to keep Eddie (Forest Whitaker) out of Empire Entertainment. In the meantime, Cookie (Taraji P. Henson) will try to rectify her past and in doing so open the door to a future relationship with her mom (Alfre Woodard).
So when can fans expect Season 5 to arrive? Following Season 1, every season of Empire has premiered in September, so the safe bet is on Season 5 following suit. Fox did not share a lot about the upcoming season, such as the plot. After Season 4 finishes airing, more details are likely to be made available.
New episodes of Empire air Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET on Fox. Wondering what else is coming up on Fox? Then check out our guides to TV's midseason and summer premieres. Do you want to know when the Season 4 finale of Empire will air? Then peruse our complete guide to this year's season finales, which includes the finale air dates for Empire, as well as all of your other favorite TV shows. If you want a blast from the Empire past, you can find the full series so far streaming on Hulu.
