‘Empire’ season 2 episode order confirmed, will have split season

For all of those waiting for some official news in regards to “Empire” and its season 2 episode order, we come now bearing some good news for you: The drama series is going to be bringing you 18 different stories as a whole for the upcoming second season.

This news was confirmed during the Fox upfront presentation on Monday, along with the news that it will continue airing at 9:00 p.m. Eastern (the network feels it would be silly to move it, even to help another show) and that it will be a split-season format. In other words, you will get nine episodes in the fall, and then the show will come back at some point, likely the spring, for the remaining nine episodes of the season. This format has been used lately for “Once Upon a Time” to some success on ABC.

Musically, one of the other changes to the season is that hitmaker Ne-Yo is going to be joining Timbaland as one of the musical gurus on the show, meaning that they can continue to come up with genre music that at least sounds pretty authentic.

At this point, Fox now realizes just what a property they have in “Empire.” It has delivered the biggest ratings for any scripted hit in the past several years, and there is obviously going to be a concentrated effort in order to ensure that these numbers do not change too much over the course of the next season. We feel like in the long-term, trying to replicate some of this success will be almost impossible. Still, we give Fox credit for trying.

To see the full Fox schedule for the upcoming season, head over to the link here right away! Also, to get some other great TV updates sent over to you, sign up now for our official CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: Fox.)