‘Empire’ season 2: Lee Daniels on moving on from big-name guest stars

If you are a member of the press, there are so many reasons to enjoy / appreciate everything that “Empire” executive producer Lee Daniels brings to the table. One of the biggest things is simply that he will tell you exactly what he thinks at any given time.

Take, for example, the first half of his show’s second season. While it was decent, he acknowledged while at PaleyFest Friday (per The Hollywood Reporter) that there were some aspects of the story that could have been told better:

“It was growing pains and I think it would have happened to any show. We were learning. Sometimes you don’t feel like its enough. That these people — these wonderfully talented actors — are enough and so you bring in this person, ok maybe we’ll get more eyes.”

He went on to elaborate further on the issues that came with trying too hard to push big-name guest stars onto the show:

“Here’s the thing, what I’ve learned on this journey in television, because I had never done television before, is that we’re good enough. Look at [the cast that we have]. I want to see them every week.”

We do understand why the “Empire” producers probably bit the apple of temptation here when it comes to big-name guest stars. This is a show that can probably get almost anyone they want at any given time, and there’s an inevitable desire to want to sign these people up. Ultimately, you just have to remember that the show didn’t need famous people to get good ratings in the first place.

Interested in getting some other news when it comes to “Empire”? Then be sure to head over to the link here right now! Also, sign up over at this link to get some more TV news on almost everything we cover, sent right over to you via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: Fox.)