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Empire album tops Billboard charts

Outselling Madonna, and matching records set by Glee, but in Australia Empire has been given the cold shoulder. Why?

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Why has Australia not tapped into Empire?

The breakout hit has gone from strength to strength in the US increasing its ratings on ever single episode (10 have now aired).

The buzz for the series has now seen the soundtrack land at #1 on the Billboard 200 album charts -even pipping Madonna’s Rebel Heart album.

That makes it the first TV soundtrack to debut at No. 1 since 2010, when three Glee albums also hit the heights. Significantly, they were albums full of cover songs.

A week before the album was released, label sources were forecasting the album’s first-week unit total to be in the 25,000 range. With music produced by Timbaland, it has passed the 130,000 mark and climbing.

While the show is nudging 15 million viewers in the US in Australia it has sadly flatlined at just 200,000 viewers.

Just crazy.

Source: Deadline

19 Responses

  1. lol I’m only 20 but I’ve seen every episode of A Place to Call Home, and yet I’m watching every episode of Empire on ten. If they would stick to a time slot that would help. The major thing that would have helped is if they had fast tracked the episodes. I’m having to hold up watching interviews with the cast that have been happening the past month because of fear of spoilers.

  2. I know it wouldn’t have the audience reach to rate like FTA, but Empire needs to make its way to Fox8 or SoHo, where it’ll be promoted as heck and be consistently programmed. In my view, Empire is the best new show of the 2015 batch. Shows like this, and Nashville, have given me a new appreciation of musical dramas, a genre I have always had quite a disdain for, as I believe the organic performances lends greater focus to telling stories concerning the industry and music business side, as opposed to using musical numbers to solely express character development (which these two programs still manage to do).

    While on the subject of Empire’s music, David, can you answer me as to whether Spotify have a geographic limit to only releasing the music that has been played on the episodes that have aired over here, as opposed to what has been released in the States?

  3. I think the main reason why the show hasn’t worked in Australia is that it just isn’t that good.The storylines are cliched and the characters,in the main,are very unlikeable.It’s hard to care about a show when the characters are so unlikeable.That’s my take on it anyway.

  4. I’m in my mid 50s and I like the show. The music is incidental to the story. Hip hop isn’t my thing (prefer hard rock/metal) but Jussie Smollett’s voice is great. Initially I wasn’t going to watch but ‘m glad I did.

  5. I watch the show and enjoy it, probably because the 8000 are watching MKR or some other reality stuff. The mere fact that TEN have a long way to go in getting viewer confidence back could account for it.
    Saying that though you have shows like The Good Wife which is excellent TV and Suits on Seven, but legal dramas never seem to rate with the 8000 that have got boxes, It is surely about time that we have a better way of rating our TV shows.
    I have said it before, but a tablet device attached to a TV or a PVR surely would not be that hard to produce and while you are at it Hobart is a Capital city not regional Australia.
    The 8000 I keep referring to is the 8000 who have ratings boxes, in a country the population of Australia and we have those 8000, really makes me angry.

  6. HipHop is marginal in Australia, not at all mainstream. In the US there is at least a market of 50million plus African Americans plus crossover, so it is easier to see why it is a success over there. Not everything travels well, so fairly easy to understand really

      1. @jonno…if it was mainstream it would rate, even by ch10 standards it would do better than it did,. It was heavily promoted on ch10, DK gave it a very positive view on here and it is available on TenPlay. The economic clout of African Americans within the US is strong and growing, but not all the product works outside the US. An example…Tyler Perry movies are decent moneymakers in the US aided by strong support from their target demo…AfroAmericans, but they don’t do big $$$ outside the US. Empire is experiencing a similar outcome

    1. Clearly Jezza you haven’t watched much of the show. The show isn’t about Hip Hop and the music isn’t all Hip Hop. Hip Hop isn’t the genre of music I associate much with, but I love the show.

      Your argument – that its success in America and failure in Australia an issue of race – is disappointing. The show has received rave reviews based on the quality of the show. I personally think it’s great that a prime time US drama/soap is largely an all black cast.

      The idea that the show “doesn’t travel well” is nonsense. Like any good soap opera it employs shakespearean qualities and universal storylines. Shame you didn’t stick around long enough to find out.

      1. rather than crticize, what is your explanation as to why it doesn’t rate here? I watched 2 eps, that was enough for me. It was fairly low by ch10 standards and has been bumped. C’mon what is your theory?

      2. @radiC00l, perhaps you should be disappointed with middle Australia – the ones who watch the predominantly white reality shows – for not being interested in a soapy melodrama with African Americans as the main cast, rather than Jezza for simply making an observation about the way things are?

        I said back in January that I did not think that this would do well in Aus because we don’t have the same large demographic base as in the US. It clearly isn’t doing well here but perhaps you have a different explanation as to why that might be?

  7. I didn’t want to start watching it, for a number of reasons. I didn’t think it would make sence that a fan of Downton Abbey and A Place to Call Home, would be a fan of Empire. But after falling upon an encore screening of the first ep and watching the next two I’ve realised that like the other two shows, Empire is a really well made Soap. An updated black Dynasty. I didn’t think I would relate to the Black American culture, but there were things in it that I could relate to. I didn’t think I’d be into the songs, but the one’s sung by the gay brother are just sublime. I also like that the characters get to say things that are so politically incorrect that if a white person said them, people would be up in arms.

  8. I don’t think Ten have capitalised on its runaway success status the way they could have. But more than that, I believe a hip-hop drama is simply a hard sell to Australian audiences. I’m loving the show. It’s got a traditional soap opera vibe to it and Taraji P. Henson is captivating. Great to see an Aussie join the cast now, too.

    Technically Madonna sold more copies than the Empire soundtrack, though.

    1. Yes, Madonna did actually sell more copies of her album than the Empire soundtrack sold. The Billboard charts now include streaming data as well as the sale of individual tracks from an album in the overall album chart (10 individual track downloads counts as an album). They call it a “consumption” chart, now, rather than simply an album sales chart. Madonna sold 116 000 copies of her album and “Empire” sold 110 000 copies.

  9. Australians have no taste, that’s why. That and the fact Ten are seven episodes behind can’t be helping things. Several people at my workplace watch it but not on TEN

    1. “Australians have no taste”…

      For once I was about to say the exact opposite. Cannot stand Empire, and I am not alone in the circles of peeps I know. I am not surprised in the slightest it has bombed here. **shrugs**

      Each to their own 🙂 When’s Doctor Who coming back? 😉

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