‘Empire’ and ‘Scream Queens’ are renewed by Fox

Call it the power of the “Empire�: Fox has renewed the hip-hop melodrama for a third season.

The announcement was made Friday by Fox Television Group’s co-chief executives, Gary Newman and Dana Walden, during Fox’s round of panels at the Television Critics. Assn. press tour in Pasadena.

The news comes hot off Taraji P. Henson’s big night at the Golden Globes, where she won the award for lead actress in a TV drama for her role as tough-as-nails matriarch Cookie Lyon.

The series’ renewal was expected. The Lee Daniels musical drama has been a hit with audiences since its record-setting first season. The midseason finale for its current sophomore outing scored 11.54 million viewers -- not including the boost the series gets when delayed and multiplatform viewing is factored in.

The series returns with its spring episodes beginning March 30.

Fox also announced it was renewing comedy-horror series “Scream Queens� for a second season.

The Season 1 finale of the anthology series, which featured Emma Roberts and Jamie Lee Curtis, closed out with 2.6 million viewers and a 0.9 rating among adults 18-49. But the campy horror drama saw a bump when including DVR playback, with total viewership climbing to 5.1 million and it’s rating among the preferred demographic group rising to a 2.2.

The second season of the series, which hails from Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Ian Brennan, will be set in a hospital and will center on bizarre medical cases.

Casting will be announced at a later date.

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