http://deadline.com/2015/02/empire-ratings-rise-up-lee-daniels-danny-strong-fox-1201381970/

‘Empire’ Ratings Rise For Unprecedented Seventh Week In A Row
by Dominic Patten

February 26, 2015 8:06am


The Legacy album might be stopped, at least for the time being, but it seems Empire (5.3/15) can’t be stopped by the usual ratings rules. It certainly couldn’t be quelled last night by the double debut of new seasons of Survivor and The Amazing Race. Perhaps “unprecedented” or “juggernaut” are becoming too weak now to describe the Fox hip-hop family drama’s results as it has hit a new high for the seventh consecutive week.


In early fast nationals numbers, last night’s Empire was up 2% from last week’s final numbers. Compared to the 5.1 preliminary result of its February 18 episode, it rose 4%. In total viewers, Empire on Wednesday was watched by 13.8 million to easily be the night’s top show. That’s also a 6% bop up from last week’s total audience.

Those rises were indicated in meter market ratings earlier this morning where the series created by Lee Daniels, Brian Grazer and Danny Strong got a 9.2/14. That’s a 4% rise over its February 18 show, which got an 8.8/13 – the previous record holder. In fast nationals, last week’s primetime-topping episode went on to get a 5.2/15 rating in adults 18-49 with 13.0 million total viewers. Long story short: Fox has come back strong as the Terrance Howard and Taraji P. Henson series started out with an impressive 3.8 rating and 9.9 million viewers in its January 7 debut and has never looked back. In fact , up 39% from its debut, Empire has grown more than any new network drama since the first year of House back in 2004. Obviously quickly renewed by the network for a second season, there are four more episodes of breakout hit Empire left in its freshman season with a double shot on March 18 – will the rise continue?

With American Idol getting a 7.1/11 in MM results, Fox ended up easily winning the night overall. With 55 of 56 markets reporting, the network had a 8.1/13 result – a rise of 12% from last week. NBC was second with a 5.2/8, CBS next with a 4.7/8 and ABC fourth with a 4.6/7. We’ll update with more fast nationals for Survivor’s 30th season debut, Amazing Race’s 26th season premiere, Modern Family, Arrow and other shows on last night later.