‘Empire’ season 2: Show boss discusses taking on more episodes

There are a pretty wide array of challenges that are coming on the upcoming second season of “Empire,” but behind the scenes, one of the largest ones was simply having to deal with the story ballooning outward after drawing such huge ratings the first time around. Season 1 ran for twelve episodes; however, season 2 is going to be a whopping 18! This may be far less than the average network show (which goes between 22 and 24), but there are a lot of different components to think about here in between the musical numbers and the elaborate story threads that constitute the show.

With that being said, it appears that dividing the season up between a half half and another batch in the spring is what is helping to make this possible. This is at least according to what show executive producer Ilene Chaiken had to say to The Hollywood Reporter:

“I always anticipated that it would be a larger order. Because Fox broke it up the way they did, I feel really comfortable with it. I thought it was a really smart way to break up the season, both in terms of the way the show will air and the opportunity that it gives us as the writers and producers to look at it in two chunks, to get through a certain amount of work and then take a little break if we’re not too far behind. It just feels very manageable.”

Chaiken also told the publication that there are many big emotional pulls to the new season, whether it be Lucious feeling liberated without ALS to Cookie working even more to establish more of her own name.

Want to get some other details when it comes to “Empire” season 2? Then be sure to head over to the link here right away! Also, you can sign up here to get some more TV news on everything we cover, sent right in your direction via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: Fox.)