Given the allegations following Jussie Smollett, Fox Networks have made a decision on their own, including Empire’s producers.
Given everything that is happening, executive producers from Empire have decided to remove Smollett’s character from the final two episodes in their current season. According to HuffPost, Smollett was paid $65,000 per episode for co-starring on Empire.
“The events of the past few weeks have been incredibly emotional for all of us,” the executive producers of “Empire,” said in a joint statement Friday. “Jussie has been an important member of our ‘Empire’ family for the past five years and we care about him deeply.
“While these allegations are very disturbing, we are placing our trust in the legal system as the process plays out,” they said. “We are also aware of the effects of this process on the cast and crew members who work on our show and to avoid further disruption on set, we have decided to remove the role of ‘Jamal’ from the final two episodes of the season.”
Empire is currently in its fifth season.