海角大神

The Fox smash hit 鈥淓mpire鈥� has returned for a second season.聽

鈥淓mpire鈥� centers on a family and the entertainment company that they are a part of. At the beginning of the show, patriarch Lucious Lyon (Terrence Howard), who founded Empire Entertainment, believed he was gravely ill and tries to decide to which of his children he should leave the company. Meanwhile, his ex-wife Cookie (Taraji P. Henson) has plans of her own.

The program co-stars Jussie Smollett, Trai Byers, and Bryshere Y. Gray.

What will happen in the show鈥檚 second season? Showrunner Ilene Chaiken said in a recent that the Lyon family is still battling one another in the new episodes. 鈥淚f season one of聽鈥楨mpire鈥櫬爓as about who will inherit the throne, season two is warring kingdoms,鈥� Chaiken said.

There will be more installments this year, with 18 episodes ordered by Fox for the second season as opposed to the 12 of the first season, and guest stars are rapper Ludacris, Kelly Rowland, Vivica A. Fox, rapper Pitbull, Mariah Carey, Lenny Kravitz, Alicia Keys, 鈥淭rainwreck鈥� actress Marisa Tomei and Chris Rock.聽

The season two premiere shows Lucious in prison following his murder of Cookie鈥檚 cousin Bunkie. And trouble was already happening with the other family members: son Jamal (Smollett) convinced Tomei鈥檚 character, Mimi Whiteman, to work with him and Lucious rather than Cookie and told Cookie, his brothers Hakeem (Gray) and Andre (Byers), and his sister-in-law Rhonda (Kaitlin Doubleday) to leave the house.聽

Chaiken said Hakeem will be one of the characters in the spotlight this season. 鈥淗e has a huge arc in this season, and a huge evolution,鈥� Chaiken said. 鈥淚t's a real growth story. It's a story of a boy becoming a man.鈥澛�

Jamal is not happy with his position at Empire Entertainment and wants to focus on his music, Chaiken said. 鈥淭he second he gets the opportunity, Jamal will bust out of his corporate chains because Jamal is an artist at heart and he is really suffering under the burden of responsibility,鈥� she said.

As for what is currently keeping viewers coming back (the season two premiere of 鈥淓mpire鈥� reportedly had the highest of the night), executive producer Danny Strong , 鈥淚 think that there鈥檚 a universal quality to the story of a family at war with itself over money and power and I think we鈥檝e got really great soap opera turns that are grounded with a gritty family drama tackling social issues. Then, you鈥檝e got the musical element of these great songs.鈥澛�

鈥淓mpire鈥� debuted this previous January and aired 12 episodes, an unusually small number for a broadcast program. (The hit NBC drama 鈥淭he Blacklist,鈥� by contrast, aired 22 in its most recent season.) The show became a ratings smash. While some broadcast programs can get great ratings for a premiere and then have ratings drop off later on, 鈥淓mpire鈥� grew week by week. 鈥淓mpire鈥� was the second-most-watched show of the year in the 18-to-49 year old demographic, behind only NBC's 鈥淪unday Night Football.鈥� It was the fifth-most-watched show in terms of total viewers, ahead of such hits as ABC's 鈥淒ancing With the Stars鈥� and CBS's 鈥淢adam Secretary.鈥�

With its 12 episodes, 鈥淓mpire鈥� is closer to a cable or streaming drama than the usual network fare 鈥� the HBO hit 鈥淕ame of Thrones鈥� airs 10 episodes per season, for example. And the fast-moving plot of the first season episodes echoed the successful dramas over on another network 鈥� the ABC dramas created or produced by Shonda Rhimes such as 鈥淪candal鈥� and 鈥淗ow to Get Away With Murder.鈥� These shows have also become big hits for their network.

With more episodes this season, there is of course more air time to fill with story. It will be interesting to see whether those behind "Empire" will be able to maintain the same creative standards.