Thanks to Darkness for the heads up.
To those who think it’s easy to replicate a success, Empire is the proof it’s not. It took a year for FOX to find a suitable companion show for Empire and probably a year and a half before it’s on the air. Oh, last pilot season, they had Studio City, which was a pretty serious candidate but not produced in-house and when you deal with a phenomenon like Empire that gets you a ton of money, especially on a network where almost everything else is not working, you’d better think twice about what to do next. They first thought about remaking a forgotten movie, Urban Cowboy, but they rushed things and the pilot they shot ended up dead, rightfully (read the preview). They finally decided to take the easiest road: they asked Empire creator Lee Daniels to create another smash hit. He came up with Star, which is not an Empire spin-off but could have been. I don’t think it would have been a good idea though. Star is fine on its own. And forcing things rarely works. Plus they don’t need Cookie. They have their own.
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