‘Empire’ season 2 episode order to be much larger; ‘American Idol’ season 15 could be its last

Could we be at the end of an era for Fox? While the idea of “American Idol” ending may be surprising given how long it has been on the air, that is something that we are still looking at actually take place.

Per The Hollywood Reporter, the network may be looking to cut back for a second straight year on its commitment to the Fox singing show. Not only that, but this 15th season could be its last … at least for a little while. The thing with TV is that trends are cyclical, and we would not be shocked if when the singing-competition crazy is in the rear-view mirror, Fox decides to get out the paddles and revives the show for some other run on TV. Thanks to having no consistent story, that is the great thing about reality TV.

As for a more current music-related hit from Fox, the source reports that “Empire” season 2 could consist of as many as 18 episodes. This feels like a rather enormous order to us, and the simple as to why is because it is a huge order compared to a relatively short season 1 by comparison. We’ve made it no secret that our personal preference was 13, and for a while it seemed like creator Lee Daniels was also interested in going short in order to keep the stories strong, as well.

This is probably the ultimate compromise. In doing this many, Fox gets to make more money and have a champion on its schedule for much of the year. Meanwhile, they do not completely exhaust the cast by going for a full 22. Let’s just hope this works better than when “Sleepy Hollow” struggled to sustain for this same period of time.

If you want to see some other recent “American Idol” coverage, head over to the link here right away. Also, sign up to get some other TV news worth singing about right away, and courtesy of our official CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: Fox.)