Empire!

The Fox Network green lights hip-hop drama series called EMPIRE and it features Terrance Howard and Taraji P. Henson. With music production from Timbaland, the network executives assure this may be a success.

The series is executive produced by Lee Daniels. Daniels is the producer for the critically acclaimed movies The Butler and Precious.

Howard and Henson both were in the Oscar nominated hip-hop movie Hustle & Flow.

Howard plays Lucious Lyon a former drug dealer turned music mogul. He is the founder of Empire Entertainment. He is a struggling father with three sons who  are struggling with their own problems. As Lucious tries to move his business into the mainstream, his ex-wife Cookie (played by Henson) comes into the picture and shakes things up. Trai Byers plays the eldest son, Andre, a ruthless hustler who wants to follow his father in building a label. Jussie Smollett of the famed Smollett family plays Jamal, Lucious the middle child is a singer who hides his homosexuality from the public. Bryshere Y. Gray plays Hakeem the youngest son. Hakeem is the player and an up and coming rapper. He is regarded as the favorite son.

Fox green lights Empire. It's a critically acclaimed hip-hop drama.

Empire has received positive reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the show has a rating of 93%, based on 26 reviews, with an average rating of 7.2/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Though heavy on melodrama, Empire elevates the nighttime soap with its top-notch cast, musical entertainment, and engrossing plots."

On Metacritic the show has a score of 68 out of 100, based on 32 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

This was a midseason replacement after the network canceled critically acclaimed dramas Red Band Society and Gracepoint.

The show got Oscar nominated actress Gabourey Sidibe in a recurring role also.

 It's on Fox, Wednesday nights.