Crews 
For fans still grieving over the news that FOX has cancelled two of it’s biggest hit shows–‘Star‘ and ‘Empire‘ just days apart, the network has revealed the reason why the newest Lee Daniels creation was given the boot.
According to the network, it was a “tough choice” but was based around the fact that the network knew ‘Empire’ was set to end, and they wanted to give that show all of their resources and energy for a proper send off.
Fox Entertainment CEO Charlie Collier told Deadline that the Star cancellation was tied in to the fact that it wanted to prioritize Empire as it moves into its sixth and final season.
Speaking on Fox’s upfronts press call, Collier said, “We looked at our priorities and were trying to prioritize giving Empire the send-off it deserves. The move [of Empire] to 9pm, made it a challenge because Star was always the lead-out from Empire and obviously we don’t have the 10pm hour, so it was another tough choice in a year where we were prioritizing Empire and obviously some of the other shows that we’ve put on the schedule.”
The first three seasons of Empire aired on Fox at Wednesday at 9pm before moving to 8pm to accommodate Star in the 9pm hour. Empire will now move to Tuesdays behind The Resident for its final season.
Star was cancelled after three seasons, although former Fox sibling 20th Century Fox TV is shopping the show to other platforms. Star’s cancellation was not unexpected and comes after Fox picked up a raft of new dramas. Star raked in solid numbers but hit a ratings low last November. The musical drama is expensive to produce, and its international sales have been challenging, which made the renewal decisions a bit more complex.
Lee Daniels hasn’t addressed the matter head on, but did take to Instagram over the weekend to reveal neither of these cancellations were his decision.
To our die hard @staronfox fans please know this was not of my doing. Our cast and crew are ?. Thanks to Ryan I have a series of bloopers that at least make this abrupt ending a little less painful … couldn’t tag everybody in this, you’ll be tagged in the next one!! Lots of Love! ❤️??❤️
