Really?
Because it didn't play that way and the reaction was meh.
The reaction's what we really want to focus on but let's first note that Jussie Smollett's EMPIRE character Jamal has been dead in the water for some time. Jamal points a lot and recaps a great deal. He is a busy body, a little red hen doing all. It wasn't always that way but Jamal's gayness scared away viewers (or so it is thought) so the show began to tamp down it it.
Each relationship has had less and less heat which is how last week's 'event' on FOX really came off as though Jamal was marrying his non-romantic roommate Kai. The blocking for the two all season long has been hideous. For example, the scene they broke up in? They couldn't have been more physically apart if they'd been in different rooms. The staging of their scenes has not been the way love scenes are staged or romances or portrayed. Toby Onwumere is a talented actor. But you can't do anything with these scenes, no one can. When Doug Savant was Matt on MELROSE PLACE, he couldn't do anything with these scenes either.
Kai and Jamal getting married should have been something. It wasn't.
It should have been romantic and lively. Instead, it was just dull.
But you had to watch to know that and the watching is another issue.
There was no bump. This wasn't just another low rated episode -- they've all been low rated since the show returned with new episodes following Jussie Smollett lying to the nation that two White men attacked him -- it was tied with the episode the week prior for least watched episode of the series.
And that's not supposed to happen.
Weddings are ratings stunts and have been since RHODA kicked off with Rhoda marrying Joe (and Mary and all her friends from THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW attending the wedding).
Jussie has to be fired and maybe even the show needs to be cancelled.
Taraji P. Henson went on THE VIEW earlier this month to plug her latest bomb (she just can't seem to make it as a movie star) and lied. She said Jussie would be back for season six. First off, season six is not a given -- especially with the current ratings. FOX has yet to announce whether the series will be renewed. Second, she was lying. As was revealed last week, she and other actors on the show have written a letter to FOX-DISNEY-WARNER-ET AL to insist that Jussie must return.
Why?
So we can see more attempts by Lee Daniels, an out gay man, to get credit for a gay storyline where two gay men are in love but never really touch and certainly never make out? It's really embarrassing to watch that nonsense.
It's also embarrassing to grasp that, as Ann pointed out, this series does not have any main women characters except for Taraji's Cookie. You've got Lucious, Andre, Hakeem and Jamal. But, year after year, you've got guest starring and supporting women only. Is that Taraji? Is she that self-centered? Or is Lee Daniels unable to create female characters? STAR would seem to suggest that the problem isn't Lee Daniels.
But the real problem is Jussie.
There's some sort of deranged fantasy that Taraji has indulged in. It goes like this: Racists are trying to destroy Jussie Smollett's career and she will stand by him.
What she can't seem to grasp is that racists wouldn't watch EMPIRE.
Whatever non-EMPIRE watchers think, it's clear what the viewers of the show feel: They want Jussie gone.
That's not due to racism, it's due to betrayal.
When Jussie chose to lie, he was not initially condemned. He was supported. People were appalled by what happened -- especially fans of EMPIRE. It was outrageous that he was attacked.
People were standing by him. And he lied.
Now there is a lot that would need to be sorted out in court. It appears, for example, that he hired his attackers. That can be argued -- the brothers say he hired them, he says he didn't. A court of law could settle the matter (and may yet). But his claim to have been attacked by two White man? That's a lie. No court is needed to sort that out.
Now when he made a deal with the prosecutors -- his community service and his posted bail in return for not going to court -- he could have gotten honest.
Then came more lies at the press conference when it was declared he was cleared of all charges. No, he wasn't. He cut a deal. The prosecutor, Kim Foxx, has stated publicly that she believes he is guilty of staging an attack and paying the attackers.
He has never gotten honest.
Viewers could forgive Jamal a lot. But what happened with Jussie just made it clear that he is not Jamal. His actions have destroyed the relationship that fans had with the fictional character of Jamal. They do not want to root for that character anymore, they do not want to watch him.
That's what the ratings for the last seven episodes have demonstrated -- each new episode since the show returned after Jussie's scandal has tanked.
Jamal got married last week and, at another time, viewers would have tuned in for that. Not last week. The message is clear, the show's fans are not going to tune in for Jamal Lyon as played by Jussie Smollett.
Jussie needs to be fired. If the part's important, it needs to be recast. The audience has spoken.
Why hasn't FOX taken this step already?
Because this week matters.
This week, Jamal won't be on. The same with next week.
Will the ratings rise without Jussie?
That's what FOX wants to know. It's one thing to fire Jussie.
That could cost them.
Gone are the days when Nazimova could get Katharine Hepburn fired from A MONTH IN THE COUNTRY for leaving a 'ladies' party with Mercedes de Acosta and not her.
You have to have cause and there is cause. Clearly, he's no longer an audience favorite. Should they fire him and he decides to sue for lost wages? That's especially possible considering the allegation that he hired two brothers to attack him so he could get publicity and use the publicity to get a big raise for his role next year on EMPIRE.
Of course, if he wanted to sue, it would be in a civil court where the burden of proof is much lower and most believe FOX can easily establish, in court, that Jussie's actions harmed the show and that, therefore, his firing was warranted.
But taking that step might not be necessary. You could avoid Jussie trying to get paid for season six by just cancelling the whole show.
While it's a given that Jussie has damaged the show and needs to go, has he damaged it so much that the show itself needs to go?
In other words, the ratings this Wednesday will explain a great deal. Are the fans done with the show? EMPIRE costs a lot to make. It's worth it to FOX when, for example, the season one finale brings in 17 million viewers. But when the show's episodes can't even draw four million? That's a different story.
While reporters have focused on Jussie's fate, they've overlooked the fact that, in season five, the audience for EMPIRE was already bailing with only five to six million viewers tuning in before Jussie's hoax. Wednesday, FOX airs "My Fate Cries Out" and the reality there is that the show's fate really does cry out.
