newsmakers

newsmakers

Fox’s ‘Empire’ moves up charts

NEW YORK

Fox’s music-business soap “Empire” is moving up the charts.

The new series logged more than 11 million viewers last week and has achieved the rare feat of growing its audience for each of its three weeks on the air, the Nielsen company said. The numbers don’t include people who watched on a time-shifted basis after the first night.

Among the youthful 18-to-49-year- old viewers that Fox cares most about, “Empire” was the most-watched show of the week, Nielsen said. The previous week, it was beaten only by the Indianapolis-New England “Deflategate” football game.

The news couldn’t be better timed for hit-starved Fox, which won the week among youthful viewers, helped also by more auditions on “American Idol.” Fox’s drama “Backstrom,” starring Rainn Wilson as a crotchety detective, had a strong showing with just under 8 million viewers sampling its debut.

After only two weeks on the air, Fox ordered a second season for “Empire.”

The CBS show “Scorpion” was the most-watched program among all viewers for the first time, taking advantage of a slow week where the normally popular “NCIS” and “The Big Bang Theory” aired reruns.

The “Miss Universe” pageant on NBC had its highest viewership since 2006. A big factor was its first placement on a Sunday night in six years; Sunday normally is the most-watched TV night of the week.

CBS won the week in prime time, averaging 8.5 million viewers. Fox had 5.4 million, NBC had 5.2 million, ABC had 4.5 million, Univision had 2.9 million, the CW had 1.9 million, Telemundo had 1.5 million and ION Television had 1.4 million.

Common, John Legend to perform ‘Glory’ at Oscars show

NEW YORK

Common and John Legend will perform their Oscar-nominated song “Glory” at the Academy Awards.

The song is from the civil-rights drama “Selma” and is among the five nominees for best song. The other four are “Everything Is Awesome,” from “The Lego Movie”; “Grateful,” from “Beyond the Lights”; “I’m Not Gonna Miss You,” from “Glen Campbell ... I’ll Be Me”; and “Lost Stars,” from “Begin Again.”

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences also announced Tuesday that “Let It Go” songwriters Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez are writing an original number for host Neil Patrick Harris. The pair won the best-song Oscar last year for the ubiquitous “Frozen” song.

The 87th Oscars will take place Feb. 22 in Los Angeles.

Associated Press