This will be my third story relating to the Jussie Smollett case. If you would like to read my previous stories, here are the links for the first and second one.
In my second story, I talked about how Jussie Smollett was charged with a class-four felony for disorderly conduct for filing a false police report. More recently, Jussie has been charged with 16, yes, 16 counts of felony charges for allegedly lying to the police about being the victim of a hate crime. For those of you wondering why it is so many, each charge corresponds to different parts of Jussie's original story to the police. It is more likely that he will be doing jail time for a few of the charges rather than if there was just one whole charge for lying to the police.
With the felony charges staking up and no new evidence proving his innocence, it is looking more and more likely that Jussie will do some serious jail time. The original felony charge could be between one to three years of jail time. Each of the 16 other felony charges could be four years in prison for each charge that goes through. I hope he does not have to do more than four years in prison, but it is not looking hopeful.
As far as his role on "Empire," the show has taken his character out of the final three episodes of the current season. The show itself is trying to determine whether or not to keep Jussie's character on or not. As someone who has watched Empire for every season, I would say it would be really hard to watch the show without Jussie's character. But, it also wouldn't be the first time a major character was killed off the show, or "went away." I believe if it came down to that, the writers would make his exit off the show as seamless as possible.
The other day I watched an E! News live stream on Facebook, and they were discussing the possibility that "Empire" could be canceled altogether because of the case. They made the comparison to the Rosanne Barr incident and how her show was canceled and then they did a spin-off with the rest of the characters. I don't think it would be necessary to cancel the whole show because of Jussie, mainly because the show could easily go on without him. There are other performers and other drama within the show that would make up for the loss of his character.
The main reason for the speculation of the show canceling there has yet to be a confirmation on whether or not there will be a sixth season of "Empire." I'll be curious to see if they wait until the charges go through for Jussie, which could take several months, or will they go on without him.
This is a tough choice for the Fox Network to make, and also the creators of "Empire." Only time will tell about the fate of the charges and the fate of "Empire."
