‘Empire,’ ‘Gotham,’ ‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’ Renewed at Fox

Fox jumped on the TCA renewal train Saturday.

The network used its executive session to hand out early 2015-16 pickups to freshman dramas Empire and Gotham as well as a third run for comedy Brooklyn Nine-Nine.

Empire has become Fox’s breakout hit after only two episodes. The 20th Century Fox Television drama from Lee Daniels and Danny Strong has emerged as the No. 1 new series of the season. Following its second episode, it is the only new broadcast drama this season to grow from week one to week two. In live-plus-same-day returns, it tied ABC’s How to Get Away With Murder as the No. 1 new broadcast series premiere among adults 18-49. Starring Terrence Howard and Taraji P. Henson, the hip-hop Dynasty has more VOD viewing than any other Fox show this season, earning more than 1.1 million total viewers.

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Warner Bros. Television’s Batman prequel Gotham, meanwhile, is averaging a 4.2 rating in adults 18-49 and 10.6 million viewers. It ranks as the season’s No. 1 broadcast drama overall among men 18-49 and men 18-34. Its series premiere —6.0 in the advertiser-coveted demo — outperformed The Blacklist and Scorpion and delivered Fox’s highest-rated fall drama debut in 14 years. The live-plus-seven rating for the Ben McKenzie DC Comics adaptation from Bruno Heller reflects the largest post-three-day ratings gain (+0.9) of any broadcast drama ever.

Comedy Brooklyn Nine-Nine, starring Andy Samberg and from Parks and Recreation producers Dan Goor and Mike Schur, hails from Universal Television and is averaging a 2.7 among adults 18-49 — up 17 percent year-over-year and posting the largest  demo uptick among second-year shows. Its renewal guarantees that Schur and Goor will have one series on the broadcast networks next season after NBC’s Parks and Recreation signs off this spring.

Empire, Brooklyn and Gotham join previously renewed animated series for the 2015-16 broadcast season Bob’s Burgers, Family Guy andThe Simpsons and mark the network’s first scripted pickups. They join Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk‘s horror comedy anthology Scream Queens, which was picked up straight-to-series last year.

The renewals — one from all of the big studios — come after CBS and The CW announced multiple renewals for 2015-16 during their TCA sessions earlier in the week.

Email: Lesley.Goldberg@THR.com
Twitter: @Snoodit