Jussie Smollett case clouds 'Empire' future

CNN ^ | 13 March 2019 | Brian Lowry

[Steely Tom]

The legal cloud of Jussie Smollett's indictment hangs over "Empire" as the series returns with new episodes Wednesday, raising questions as to whether that uncertainty and off-screen drama will derail the Fox primetime soap -- or perversely, temporarily spur interest in it.

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The network has already announced that the actor will be left out of the last two episodes to "avoid further disruption on set," although it's unclear how his absence will be explained. That means the seventh hour in this latest run could wind up being his character's last on the series. The program has yet to be renewed for next season, a decision Fox won't have to officially make until May.

The producers initially expressed support for Smollett. After he was charged, they called the allegations "disturbing," saying in a statement that Smollett is "an important member of our 'Empire' family," adding that "we are placing our trust in the legal system as the process plays out."

[dandiegirl]

He sounds like a person that has NEVER been held responsible for anything wrong he has ever done. Now he’s pleading not guilty to all of this because he just can’t handle it. He has severe emotional problems if you ask me and has been raised as a golden child by all these super feminists around him. Where was his father?

[Steely Tom]

Bewitched had two Darren Stevens.

I bought a cut-rate set of Bewitched DVDs a few years back; both my children loved them (we don't have conventional TV, so they'd never seen any 1960s sitcoms before).

By the end of it, they were both all "Dick York was the best, Dick Sargent was terrible!" Exactly what I thought as a kid.

[Trump.Deplorable]

Don’t forget Roseanne, killed her character off with a drug overdose

[Larry Lucido]

Empire Strikes...Out.

[yesthatjallen]

These shows, including Game of Thrones, are basically drawn out, high-production soap operas with open-ended plot lines.

I'm not knocking them or the people who watch them for entertainment but that's essentially what they are.

Some are better or worse than others depending on the writers, cast, and production team.

[morphing libertarian]

agree. I was a fan of Dallas and Dynasty which were both soap operas, as you say. But GOT is a great fantasy genre and has plenty of fast moving sub-plots and action. And now the dragons are unleashed.

[Crucial]

I doubt this will affect Empire’s future. A lot of Empire’s fans are as biased or nearly as biased as Jusse Smollett.

[Leaning Right]

All they have to do is change the title to ‘Empire of Liars’. Why do I always have to think of everything?

[catnipman]

“Something else for you to lose sleep over. If you have no life. “

ROTFLOL!

still, i’m already losing sleep over the “suspense” of whether “Beto” is gonna announce ...

[Liz]

Smollett’s brazen appearance on the set, after the hoax was revealed, threw the entire cast and crew into turmoil.

Did he think they would greet him as a conquering hero....like a gay black guy putting one over on dumb whitey?

Hoaxer Smollett’s actions impugns everyone on the show......and they know it.

That’s why they threw him off the set.

[catnipman]

“The “former” actor should be written out of the show with him never appearing again on any show, let alone this one.”

likely to happen too, if he pleads to one or more of the 16 felonies lodged against him by a grand jury ...

[catnipman]

“Oh boy, who cares, never seen a single episode, never will.”

actually, i never even heard of the show until Juicy did his thing ...

[Old Teufel Hunden]

This article is for all of those who say that he has been treated just like Rosanne Barr. Not even close!!

Notice, how there’s no mention of firing him. Just that he was written out of the last two episodes this year. Per the article it has yet to be picked up next year. If it’s not picked up, then he’s out of work anyways. If it is picked up, then they have a decision to make. One they still haven’t yet made.

If they did get picked up, if I were them I would play it like the soaps do. They have actors leave the show all the time and new actors take the characters place as if nothing changed.

[Uversabound]

whether “Beto” is gonna announce ...

Ya know just in intellegence and experience Trump would flatten this dink!

Popcorn!

[Steely Tom]

Smollett’s brazen appearance on the set, after the hoax was revealed, threw the entire cast and crew into turmoil.

Did he think they would greet him as a conquering hero....like a gay black guy putting one over on dumb whitey?

Hoaxer Smollett’s actions impugns everyone on the show......and they know it.

And the MSM covering it had to go along with the "conquering hero" narrative, even though they probably knew already — in their own minds — that it was all going to fall apart.

You don't go along with the virtue-signaling narrative, you can go look for another job. Like, in a Kinko's, or a UPS Store.

[Liz]

Probably Smollett's hoax would have died a slow death but the imbecile insisted "he wanted to tell his story on TV."

Smollett's victimized personna fought like blazes to get a TV interview. ABC's GMA obliged him. Smollett's lies were
picture-perfect. He was a fighting-mad "victim" as he lied to an unblinking true believer Robin Roberts on ABC's GMA.

Smollett reinvented himself as an especially fierce kind of "victim," a cool hero. “I fought the f**k back,” he told believer Roberts.
And, miracle of miracles, while Smollett was fighting off hate-filled attackers, he never once lost control of his Subway tuna sandwich.

====================================

THE BLOWBACK MUSTA BEEN INTENSE--EARLY ON, ABC BROUGHT OUT THE BIG GUNS.
Roberts swallowed Smollett's story hook, line, and sinker, and roiled ABC's PTB.

As Smollett Story Unravels, ABC Defends Robin Roberts' Softball Interview on GMA
By Kristine Marsh, newsbusters.org | February 18, 2019

ABC’s Good Morning America team went into full damage control mode Monday, after news broke over the weekend that actor Jussie Smollett had allegedly paid two men to stage his assault. Just last Thursday, anchor Robin Roberts had given the actor a softball interview, even refusing to call his story of a Trump supporter assaulting him, “alleged.” Leading into the report, Roberts finally did call the quickly unraveling story “alleged:”

"A new twist in the Jussie Smollett case. The actor firing back this morning as the story of his alleged attack faces questions. Police in Chicago say they're working to corroborate allegations that Smollett paid two men to stage the assault," she stated. In reporter Eva Pilgrim’s report, she tried to save face for ABC, stressing that police had said Smollett was “cooperating fully” with the investigation up until this point. Pilgrim did not mention that the Chicago Police Department also said Smollett would only give partial, redacted phone records to them.

Roberts followed up by defending her interview with the actor, as appropriate given the knowledge they had at the time: This case is ever evolving. Head-spinning. Changing. When I sat down with Jussie, it was Tuesday night in Chicago. At the time to give his first account publicly give his first account of what he said happened. And we have to remember, at that time, on Tuesday, police officers were saying that his account was consistent. It was credible. And that he was being cooperative. This was all before the interview aired on Thursday and then we found out about the brothers. Afterwards, the ABC team brought on the network’s legal analyst, Dan Abrams, to help do more damage control, spinning Roberts’ interview as more even-handed than it was by hyping the few times she had gingerly brought up skeptics of his story:

[I] have to say, Robin, even in the interview you did, you were talking about the skeptics. You were talking about the people who questioned his account. So, it's not new this idea that there are questions about what happened. What's new is that the police now seem to be making it clear that they believe the brothers and have, at the very least, serious questions about Jussie.

To end their segment, ABC hammered home how they weren’t responsible for how much airtime his problematic story got to begin with. GMA’sweekend anchor Dan Harris worried that just Smollett, not their network or the media as a whole, had caused damage for actual victims of hate crimes. Dan Abrams agreed, even admitting that the media “wanted” to believe Smollett’s account.

Again, the ABC team wouldn’t acknowledge the media’s role in spreading his dubious account:

DAN HARRIS: If Smollett made this up, what kind of impact does this have on other people that come forward to tell stories that are true about assault?
ABRAMS: I think that is the real impact here. I think this would have a big impact on the country. Which is, you want to believe someone. I mean, you're talking about an allegation of homophobia, racism, politics, all of it in one allegation. If it turns out that this well-known person just made this up, it's going to, I think, lead some people to have questions about coming forward. It will lead others having questions about whether they believe people's accounts. This is having a much bigger impact I think.....

"Yes. It is a very interesting turn in this case. I know people who talked to Jussie over the weekend. He insists that he had nothing to do the story. The more you hear, the more questions that are being raised. The investigation we should stress is still underway," she gushed.

https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/kristine-marsh/2019/02/18/smollett-story-unravels-abc-defends-robin-roberts-softball

[yesthatjallen]

I never watched it but South Park did an episode about the fact the dragons never came. 'Oh, they're coming!' George Martin assures the boys.

Did the dragons finally show up?

[Liz]

Kinko’s....heh.

Maybe he could get a job at McD’s as a ketchup pumper?

[morphing libertarian]

The dragons appeared now and then and turned some enemies into char-broil. They showed the queen/dragon mother nurturing them from baby dragons.

Now one has been captured by the bad guys and this season finale we may see dragon against dragon. If you like dragons, the show does a pretty good job. One looks alot like Maxine Waters though. Be warned.

[GOPJ]

The show should have fired the creep when they had clear proof of what he had done.