EMPIRE Talk Week 1 (FOX TV) Lee Daniels, Taraji P. Henson, Terrence Howard

There’s no better feeling than to find out people are watching what you’re doing, I’m not talking about Fox’s new drama Empire yet, created by Lee Daniels and Danny Strong, I’m talking about me, and Tinsel & Tine.

A PR Rep for the show and FOX TV contacted me to ask if I wanted to be a Blog Ambassador for #EMPIRE. And it didn’t just come with an email, it came with a phone call from LA! I was told they’d been following my movie tweets and posts and felt T&T would be a good fit. Auspicious beginning to 2015! So now I’ll be watching the show EVERY WEDNESDAY at 9pm (which has a lead in of American Idol). I’ll get swag to give away, some inside scoops on the show and… I don’t know what else yet, but I’m open to whatever perks and fun it provides for both T&T and our readers – so STAY TUNED!

Such A Great Show @leedanielsent Enjoyed It @EmpireFOX
— Tray Chaney (@traychaney) January 8, 2015

Last night the show got off to a great start with a lot of positive tweets from people during the broadcast. In case you didn’t watch…

I’ll give you the EMPIRE run down

Terrence Howard plays Lucious Lyon, a record mogul who grew up on the hard streets of Philadelphia, but with a knowledge of his musical talent. He and his wife Cookie (Taraji P. Henson) sold drugs to both live and feed their family (3 sons) and feed their dream. Something, and we don’t know what exactly yet, went wrong at some point and Cookie went down for their crimes, doing 17 years in lock up. The show establishes some important details in the premiere…

1. Cookie takes the cake! She’s fierce, funny, a mother lioness, and fabulous. She walks out of prison to immediately demand her due from Lucious and her sons. You can tell Lucious, although worried about what Cookie will do next, still admires her spirit.

Brace yourselves for this flashback. I have to EVERY TIME I watch the show!!!!!
— Taraji P. Henson (@TherealTaraji) January 8, 2015

2. The Lyon Empire is becoming a publicly traded company in the stock market. This will give the company some leverage to get into other things and make more money as the music industry is not as lucrative as it once was, with industry sales at their all time low due to internet downloads.

3. Lucious is dying. He’s been diagnosed with ALS and has maybe 3 good years left. I’m thinking the plan is to establish the show with big players like Howard and Henson, but allow the younger cast to eventually become the focus of the show. At any rate, Lucious is keeping his condition under wraps, but he does announce to his son’s that he’s ready to groom one of them to become the CEO.

4. The Eldest son, Andre (Trai Byers) is most like his father in that he has a head for business. He assumes he’s the natural choice, but Lucious seems to favor the baby Hakeem (Bryshere Gray) who’s the most down with edge and swagger. Lucious has no love for his middle son Jamal (Jussie Smollett). Jamal is not going to deny who he is just to please his father, he’s gay and that’s that. Jamal knows in the hip hop music world being gay is not marketable, but his talent is undeniable. What I like is Jamal & Hakeem are tight. They don’t care too much for Andre, but they get each other.

#EMPIRE Jamal’s @JussieSmollett sexuality and Lucious intolerance creates good tension. Let’s see where it goes.
— Tinsel & Tine (@tinseltine) January 8, 2015

5. The show’s music supervisor is Timbaland and he’s got a big job because although the show deals with family dynamics, secrets of the past, secrets of the present, murder, girlfriends, boyfriends, money and revenge, at the center is the music! Check out the below video with Timbaland on The Breakfast Club talking about what he had to learn when it came to making music for a tv series. (Note: video will not be visible to those receiving Tinsel & Tine via RSS Feed).

I’m gonna try to do a little Empire update post each week after another episode airs. And I’ll be tweeting and re-tweeting your tweet during the show. You can also follow Tinsel & Tine on Instagram, Facebook and Tumblr. So I guess this means Tinsel & Tine is now, film, food, Philly and TV?

Here’s a little slideshow of pictures from the Empire Premiere Party held in LA on January 6, 2015 (Note: images will not be visible to those receiving Tinsel & Tine via RSS Feed).