Fox's primetime soap Empire arrived in January and immediately conquered the world.
It hit a sweet spot for American television, neatly walking the tightrope between workplace show (set in the world of hip-hop) and family drama. From the first episode, Empire's ratings soared.
The series is particularly popular among black Americans, who have appreciated a show that at least tries to tell stories about black life in the modern US.
Most primetime television is embarrassingly un-diverse. With the exception of shows produced by Shonda Rhimes, nonwhite characters on television are too often reduced to tropes, or simply don't exist. But on Empire, they get to be well-rounded (if undoubtedly extreme) characters.
This chart from Vulture shows exactly how popular the show is with black audiences:
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Empire didn't just outperform the Grammys and Scandal (which is centered on a powerful black woman) with black viewers. No, the top-rated episode of Empire outperformed America's most-watched TV event, the Super Bowl.
That's the kind of hit network TV hasn't had in a while. Plus Empire is popular across the board, not just with black viewers. Go to Vulture for more charts showing the series' utter ratings dominance.
