There’s also the point that Empire’s spring premiere wasn’t the most hyped episode of television to hit the airwaves this midseason.
Ratings and viewership after three days and seven days might be less dire.
Maybe viewers just aren’t loving the mystery of who dies, and the cliffhanger therefore fell flat.
The numbers that have been calculated so far are disappointing, but there’s a chance that they could rise significantly once post-live viewership can be tallied.