Ratings nosedived for Empire's first episode after Jussie Smollett's arrest

Empire just took a huge ratings hit in its first episode back since star Jussie Smollett's arrest.

The Fox drama on Wednesday aired its midseason premiere after being off the air for three months. Smollett, who claimed in January he was the victim of a hate crime but has since been charged with disorderly conduct as police say he paid to stage the attack, was featured in the episode as usual, although he will be removed from the show later in the season.

Ratings for the new episode fell significantly, with 4.4 million total viewers tuning in, per The Wrap. For comparison, about five million people tuned into the previous episode in December. This is also down from the 6.2 million people who watched the midseason premiere in 2018. The result was the second-worst rated Empire episode in the show's entire run, with the worst being one that aired on Halloween 2018 that drew an audience of 4.2 million viewers. Still, Empire was the second highest-rated primetime show on Wednesday night, Deadline points out.

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Smollett appeared in a Chicago court on Thursday to plead not guilty to the 16 counts against him. His next court appearance will take place on April 17.