FOX wants to stay in business with Lee Daniels. The network has renewed Star for a second season.
The music drama comes with great pedigree, co-created by the co-creator of Fox’s biggest series in years, Empire‘s Lee Daniels, as well as Tom Donaghy. Launching behind the fall finale of Empire, Star has not been a breakout like the hip-hop family drama but it has been stable, averaging a Live+Same Day rating between 1.2 and 1.3 in adults 18-49 for the past five weeks, rising to about 1.9 in Live+7. That is a tad below Lethal Weapon and on par with Lucifer, which also was renewed recently, along with Empire.
The four early drama renewals leave on the bubble big-budget DC series Gotham as well as low-rated freshmen Pitch and The Exorcist and sophomore Scream Queens. Like Star, Pitch and Scream Queens come from some of the most important producers at Fox sibling 20th TV — This Is Us creator Dan Fogelman (Pitch) and American Horror Story and American Crime Story mastermind Ryan Murphy (Scream Queens) — so these renewal discussions likely won’t be strictly ratings performance-based. Fox also has two midseason drama series that just premiered, 24: Legacy and APB. On the comedy side, the only series renewed so far is new midseason entry The Mick.
Star, whose cast includes Queen Latifah, Benjamin Bratt, Jude Demorest, Brittany O’Grady, Ryan Destiny, Amiyah Scott and Quincy Brown, averages 7.5 million multi-platform audiences, according to Fox. It follows three talented singers – running from their pasts and desperate for a new start – with ambitions of stardom, as they navigate the cutthroat music business. The Season 1 finale airs March 15 before Empire returns to the Wednesday 9 PM time period. Guest stars set to appear on Star over the next four weeks include Naomi Campbell, Big Boi, Rickey Smiley, Missy Elliott and Paris Jackson.
