FOX Renews Empire for Season 4, Revives Love Connection

LOS ANGELES: FOX has renewed the hit drama Empire for a fourth season and is also bringing back the classic relationship show Love Connection, to be hosted by Andy Cohen, in addition to greenlighting a new Mark Burnett game show based on the Shazam music app.

Empire ranks as the number one U.S. broadcast drama among adults 18 to 49 for the third consecutive season. The series, which stars Terrence Howard and Taraji P. Henson, returns for its spring premiere on March 22 on FOX.

Love Connection, which originally ran from 1983 to 1994, is being revived with a 15-episode order. Mike Fleiss (The Bachelor) will executive produce, while Cohen (Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen) serves as host and co-executive producer. From Fleiss’ NEXT Entertainment, Warner Horizon Television and Telepictures Productions, Love Connection is set to premiere on FOX in summer 2017.

“I was a huge fan of the original Love Connection, and hosting the new version allows me to do one of the things I love most: meddling in people’s personal lives,” said Cohen.

“We couldn’t be more thrilled to bring this incredibly beloved and iconic show to prime-time network television,” said Mike Darnell, the president of Warner Bros. unscripted and alternative television. “The combination of the insanely talented Andy Cohen and the undisputed king of relationship shows Mike Fleiss is absolute magic…add in the perfect home of FOX…and I think we have a match made in heaven.”

“Love Connection was always one of my favorite programs,” added Fleiss. “Show creator Eric Lieber was a close friend of mine. He taught me a lot about the relationship-show format. The first rule: if the cast is good, just stay out of the way.”

FOX also announced that Grammy-, Golden Globe- and Academy Award-winning actor and musician Jamie Foxx (Ray, Django Unchained) has been tapped to host the new interactive game show Beat Shazam. The series will see teams of two race against the clock and each other as they attempt to identify the biggest hit songs of all time. Executive produced by Burnett (Survivor, The Voice) and Jeff Apploff (Don’t Forget the Lyrics!), the straight-to-series order is scheduled to premiere in summer 2017 on FOX. Foxx also will serve as an executive producer.

“Jamie is a quadruple-threat and creative genius,” added Burnett. “He is an incredible actor, comedian, singer and dancer. Also, his musical knowledge is so great that he could probably…Beat Shazam.”

“Shazam is one of the most beloved apps in the marketplace, and can identify millions of songs in a matter of seconds—whether you’re using it to discover a new band or to identify a newly released hit from your favorite artist,” noted Apploff. “It reaches more than 160 million music lovers worldwide, and combined with Jamie Foxx’s amazing talent and worldwide star power, we simply can’t imagine a greater team to create the next big music game show.”