*“Empire” Season 3 premiered Wednesday night and the Lee Daniels Hip-Hop drama tumbled 39 percent in the key 18-49 demographic versus its sophomore season start, thewrap reports. The series followed a decent debut from the new cop show “Lethal Weapon,” starring Damon Wayans. In the dramatic season three premiere—SPOILER ALERT—Rhonda Lyon (Kaitlyn Doubleday) fell to her death as husband Andre (Trai Byers) looked on.
“Empire” showrunner Ilene Chaiken told The Hollywood Reporter that Rhonda is indeed a ghost, however, she noted:
“It’s an important part of Andre’s story and his psyche and it really tells the story of his state of mind,” she said. “And we were excited by it, not just because we didn’t want to let go of Kaitlin, but because it felt very, very real and right to us.”
“Empire” airs Wednesdays, 9 p.m. on Fox.
READ RELATED STORY: RECAP: Empire (S3, Ep1) Light In Darkness
*LeBron James’ SpringHill Entertainment has teamed with NBC on a script commitment to “There Goes the Neighborhood,” a single-camera comedy from “Scrubs” creator Bill Lawrence. The show is the second scripted series SpringHill has sold to NBC. The network recently picked up a drama loosely based on the life of Dr. James Andrews, surgeon to the world’s greatest sports stars.
“There Goes the Neighborhood” is about the first white family to move into a predominantly black, newly gentrifying neighborhood in Cleveland. James resides in his hometown of Akron near Cleveland as he plays for the defending NBA champion Cleveland Cavaliers.
Actor-comedian-writer Ron Funches, co-star of the upcoming NBC/WBTV comedy series “Powerless,” co-wrote the comedy along with former “Community” executive producers Neil Goldman & Garrett Donovan. Funches and Lawrence previously teamed on the Lawrence-produced comedy series “Undateable.”
“There Goes the Neighborhood” would join “The Drew Carey Show” and “Hot in Cleveland” as sitcoms set in Cleveland. The show’s greenlight means LeBron now has more executive producer titles (5) than NBA titles (3), per Cleveland.com. In addition to the two new series for NBC, SpringHill also produces the comedy “Survivor’s Remorse” on Starz, the reality show “Cleveland Hustles” on CNBC and the upcoming game show “The Wall” on NBC.
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