The Internet's Hilarious Reactions To Fox's 'Empire'

Let's be real: no one flipped to Fox last night (Jan. 7) to watch the season 14 premiere of American Idol. (Sorry, J.Lo.) Check the preliminary Nielsen data and basically, any person with a Twitter handle tuned into Lee Daniels' new hip-hop drama Empire, which scored a 3.7 rating among folks under 50 compared to A.I.'s 3.1 to be exact.

In case you missed the premiere IRL, here's the SparkNotes: Empire Entertainment is run by Sir Lucius Lyon (an ex-drug dealer from Philly), who takes the company public and wants to choose a heir from one of his three sons: the business savvy Harvard student, Andre, gay singer Jamal and flashy rapper Hakeem. Things get even more cray when their mother, Cookie, is released from prison and wants her piece of the family business. And, oh yeah, Lucius is diagnosed with ALS and has three years tops to live. As expected, the Internet went H.A.M. during episode 1, leaving us with the best tweets and memes above.