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Fox removed Smollett from Empire after police called his attack a staged stunt
He reported a racist attack in January; within three weeks the police called it staged, and the studio cut his character from the season's last two episodes.
20th Century Fox Television · Fox Entertainment · 2019-02-22
What happened
On 29 January 2019 Jussie Smollett, a star of Fox's hit drama Empire, reported that two masked men had beaten him and looped a rope around his neck. Within three weeks Chicago police concluded the attack never happened: Superintendent Eddie Johnson said Smollett had paid two brothers $3,500 'to stage this attack,' and prosecutors charged him with sixteen counts of disorderly conduct for filing a false police report.
Fox moved the day after the charges. 20th Century Fox Television and Fox Entertainment announced that his character Jamal would be removed from the final two episodes of the season: 'While these allegations are very disturbing, we are placing our trust in the legal system as the process plays out... to avoid further disruption on set, we have decided to remove the role of Jamal from the final two episodes of the season.' Already-filmed scenes were cut from finished episodes, and a planned on-screen wedding for the character was scrapped.
The salary behind the role was $65,000 an episode, and the role did not survive the season. On 30 April 2019, the day Fox renewed the show for a sixth season, Fox Entertainment confirmed in a statement that there were no plans for Jamal to return. Empire aired its final season in 2020 without him, and his career never recovered its footing.
Why it happened
- The story died in three weeks, and the official finding came from the police, not the press: Johnson's announcement, backed by evidence and charges, is what the studio priced.
- The bet was five seasons deep: Jamal was the show's emotional centre, so cutting him meant ripping filmed scenes out of finished episodes and dropping a planned wedding arc.
- The case kept repricing itself: charges dropped, then re-filed, then a conviction, then a reversal — every turn kept the story alive and made the actor's return impossible.
The lesson
One false report rewrote a career overnight: the studio cut its five-year star within a day of the police announcement — official findings move brands faster than rumours do.
Aftermath
The state's attorney dropped all sixteen counts in March 2019 after Smollett forfeited his $10,000 bond and did community service; a special prosecutor re-filed the case in 2020. A jury convicted him on five counts in December 2021, and in March 2022 a judge sentenced him and ordered $120,000 in restitution to Chicago. On 21 November 2024 the Illinois Supreme Court overturned the conviction: the second prosecution after the 2019 deal was a due-process violation, and the state had to honor the agreement it had made. Smollett's acting career did not recover.
Sources
- 20th Century Fox Television statement removing Smollett from final 'Empire' episodes — CNBC, 22 February 2019
- Chicago police: Empire actor Jussie Smollett faked attack — NPR, 21 February 2019
- Jussie Smollett's Empire future in doubt after Fox statement on staged attack — USA Today, 22 February 2019
- Jussie Smollett will not return to 'Empire' for next season — AP, 30 April 2019
- Jussie Smollett conviction overturned by Illinois Supreme Court — Fox News, 21 November 2024
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