Why Isn’t ‘Empire’ On Tonight? Fox Show Taking Two Week Hiatus

Fans won’t be stepping into the Lyon’s den tonight. The Fox hip-hop drama is taking a short hiatus and won’t be airing a new episode on Wednesday, Oct. 19. Instead, Fox will be airing the third Presidential Debate during “Empire’s” normal time slot.

The official Twitter page for the “Empire” writers announced last week that the show wouldn’t be returning until Nov. 2. That means there also won’t be a new episode of “Empire” next week either. According to Fox’s TV lineup, the network will broadcast the World Series instead.

When “Empire” finally does return with episode 5, fans will be in for a treat. According to a synopsis (via TV Guide) in “One Before Another” Jamal (Jussie Smollett) is still trying to overcome his fears of performing and thinks that performing with Hakeem (Bryshere Y. Gray) could help him. Cookie (Taraji P. Henson) is also caught off-guard when she meets up with her probation officer, and Lucious (Terrence Howard) and Andre (Trai Byers) are dealing with the aftermath of a shady business encounter with Shine (Xzibit).

In an interview with Entertainment Tonight last week, co-executive producer Matt Pyken teased that the drama between Lucious, Andre and Shine is far from over. “There are two sides to [their fight],” he said. “One is the Shine side; he’s obviously much more formidable this season that the buffoon gangster that we teased him at the end of Season 2. That was the part of the writers idea’ to let Shine get closer to the family without seeming threatening. On the Andre side, after his arrest and his ‘woke’-ness that occurred after that, Andre has figuratively and literally taken the gloves off. … [He’s realizing that in some ways, him being powerful, physically and mentally, is an asset.”

“Empire” will return for new episodes Wednesday, Nov. 2, at 9 p.m. EDT on Fox.