'Empire' roars back with 16 million viewers

Empire remains king on Fox.

The hip-hop soap hit drew an average of 16.2 million same-day viewers for Wednesday's second-season premiere, giving the network a shot of adrenaline after lackluster debuts for new series Minority Report and Scream Queens earlier this week.

Empire couldn't match the 16.7 million same-day total for last March's season finale, though it slightly exceeded that episode among young-adult viewers.  And it came in well above the 9.9 million who tuned in for January's series opener.

The show may have helped its 8 p.m. ET/PT companion Rosewood, which opened with a decent 7.4 million, besting Minority (3.1 million) and the heavily promoted Scream (4 million) in both total viewership and among young adults.