FOX renews Empire for a 6th season but it won't include Jussie Smollett.

FOX (DStv 125 / StarSat 131 / Cell C black 201) has renewed the American drama series Empire for a 6th season but without the show's embattled actor Jussie Smollett.

It comes after Jussie Smollett was suspended and absent from a few of the latest 5th season's episodes and a court battle after he allegedly staged a hate crime attack in Chicago, with the prosecutor who decided to throw the case out.

Jussie Smollett made international headlines when he was the victim of a physical assault which he claimed was homophobic, racially and politically motivated but in a surprise twist was then accused of hiring the two Nigerian men to attack him.

He was indicted for filing false statements but in another surprise, the criminal charges were dropped in March. The city of Chicago has however filed a lawsuit again him to recover the cost of the police investigation.

The studio producing Empire, 20th Century Fox TV and FOX say in a statement that "By mutual agreement, the studio has negotiated an extension to Jussie Smollett's option for season 6, but at this time there are no plans for the character of Jamal to return to Empire."

What it means is that Jussie Smollett can return but that the story for the 6th season will no longer include the character or the actor.

Last week the principal ensemble cast headed up by Taraji P. Henson (Cookie) and Terrence Howard (Lucious) published an open letter, addressed to Fox executives, pleading that the actor be kept on the show.

"Together, as a united front, we stand with Jussie Smollett and ask that our co-star, brother and friend be brought back for our sixth season of Empire," they said, calling him honest" and "filled with integrity".

Jussie Smollett's representatives issued a separate statement saying "Jussie will not be on Empire in the beginning of the season but he appreciates they have extended his contract to keep Jamal’s future open. Most importantly he is grateful to Fox and Empire leadership, cast, crew and fans for their unwavering support."

Michael Thorn, Fox entertainment president, in the statement announcing Empire's 6th season renewal, says Empire "continues to break barriers with its emotionally powerful storytelling, and it remains a core part of the Fox legacy".

"We want to thank everyone on the show all of whom have done a tremendous job this season. We know there are so many more stories to tell, and we can't wait to see what they have in store for season 6."

FOX adds half-hour Taraji P. Henson in South Africa TV special to debut before the second half of Empire's 5th season resumes next week.

FOX (DStv 125 / StarSat 131 / Cell C black 201) has added a half-hour Taraji P. Henson in South Africa TV special that will be broadcast before the start of the second half of the 5th season of the drama series Empire that will resume next week on Thursday, 14 March.

The Taraji. P Henson in SA TV special will be shown on FOX on 14 March at 19:30.

It will be followed by a repeat of episode 9 of the 5th season of Empire at 19:55 to catch viewers up on where the story left off, and then episode 10 of Empire at 20:45 which is new.

The half-hour Taraji P. Henson in South Africa TV special will showcase highlights from her visit to South Africa in December - her second time visiting South Africa.

Taraji P. Henson's week-long tour included a press conference, fan engagements, visits to Constitution Hill, the Apartheid Museum, the non-profit organisation Keep a Child Alive and an amazing Women in Media event.

"Henson absolutely rocked Johannesburg during her visit here in December," says Makhosazana Khanyile, Fox Networks Group Africa's director of marketing and on-air.

"We can't wait to share the highlights of her visit with viewers, and to see more of her as Cookie in the remaining eight episodes of this season".

The Taraji P. Henson in South Africa TV special will be broadcast and repeated as follows:
14 March 19:30 (premiere)
15 March 23:15
16 March 16:10
16 March 21:25
17 March 20:45
21 March 15:45
21 March 21:45

TV CRITIC'S NOTEBOOK. Outfoxed: How Fox Africa surprised South Africa's TV biz as it surged to first place with the best TV party of the year in mid-December and Empire's Taraji P. Henson.

How did this happen? Seriously. How did this happen?

Not a single one of the carefully chosen and invited 143 people who attended Fox Africa's utterly spectacular "A Night with Taraji" dinner event Friday evening inside what looks like an aircraft hangar called "The Shed" at Steyn City in Fourways, Johannesburg can honestly say that they knew that they would be getting a seat at the table of the South African TV industry's best party of the year for 2018.

Only the fantastic media launch dinner events over 2 consecutive nights that M-Net (DStv 101) held in April in Limpopo for The Wedding Bashers and Survivor SA: Philippines rival what Fox Networks Group Africa did on Friday night with its extremely exclusive dinner event for Empire's Taraji P. Henson as a 3-way first place tie.

The mid-December doldrums for South Africa's TV industry and the press covering it, is usually more convincingly dead than the zombie extras in The Walking Dead, with the year that used to end with a last big party and the best annual upfront of the year in South Africa - the one of Discovery Inc. EMEA - until Discovery Networks International abruptly stopped doing an upfront.

Like a team suddenly scoring a last second goal out of left-field before the final whistle, cue the utter surprise and shock when FNG Africa suddenly mounted and executed with awe and perfection a year-ending media event for the FOX (DStv 125 / StarSat 131 / Cell C black 201) channel in South Africa around the press tour of Empire's Taraji P. Henson so bewildering amazing that it wasn't just the last TV party of the year, but also its best.

Only if you've ever had the opportunity to attend a real and proper Hollywood red carpet event for a TV show and how it's done there in the United States, would you have been able to recognise the basically faultless "Hollywood-level" effort and standard that Fox Africa put in and succeeded in "recreating" in Africa for its "A Night with Taraji" event.

It's not easy due to various issues involving money and budget, logistics, availability of people with actual know-how, skills and experience, the availability of event organisers, diaries and talent - and yet Fox Africa managed to successfully pull off a miracle with "A Night with Taraji" - and in mid-December no less.

In a year in which SuperSport could have gone big with something like a proper party for the 2018 FIFA World Cup and its redone Studio 6, a year in which eMedia Investments' news channel eNCA (DStv 403) turned 10 years old and deserved a big celebration but got nothing, and the seemingly passé Isidingo on SABC3 turned 20 in July but couldn't bother, Fox Africa ended outfoxing everyone by making a 2018 last-second splash with "A Night with Taraji" - winning the year for best South African TV industry party.

Honourable mentions must go to M-Net's wonderful party to properly celebrate Carte Blanche's 30th anniversary in August, Turner doing it's first-ever Turner Upfront Africa event in Johannesburg in November, and Mzansi Magic's (DStv 161) terrific 2018 DStv Mzansi Viewers Choice Awards nominees announcement press event.

More honourable mentions for great TV parties this year go to both of BBC Studios Africa's extremely well-done winter and summer upfront events, and MultiChoice Africa's terrific launch event party of its Southern Africa MultiChoice Talent Factory film academy in October in Lusaka, Zambia.

(Who knows where Viacom Africa's BET Global Good Dinner in August would have fit or what happened there since Viacom International Media Networks Africa couldn't bother to invite or give a heads-up to actual working press beforehand about it, nor communicate anything afterwards about it.)

Hopefully the Afrikaans channel kykNET (DStv 144) remembers that it's turning 20 years old in October 2019 and has some kind of proper "opskop" celebration marking this big milestone.

But back to Fox Africa and "A Night with Taraji".

If you want to get a sense of what TV channels are truly blue-chip, premium-positioned offerings - besides simply watching and judging their on-air content - the "activations" and "eventing" they do actually give a very good idea of their market status.

While M-Net and BBC Studios Africa maintain their perennially premium status with high-class, excellent, beautifully done (and constantly evolving) press events, Fox Africa in 2018 definitely joined the premium party brigade.

Is it any wonder that it also happened to also be the exact same three - BBC Studios Africa, M-Net and FOX Africa - who this year intentionally spearheaded getting rid of plastic straws at their media events?

If you're a TV channel or broadcaster planning to do a media event or party in 2019 and want to be considered part of the best, these three TV brands are definitely the ones you have to beat.


ALSO READ: Taraji P. Henson at Fox Africa's 'A Night with Taraji' dinner event talks embracing change, Hollywood pay disparity, looking for solutions - and playing Cookie on Empire with 'the why'.
ALSO READ: IN PHOTOS: The exclusive, invite-only, golden delicious - and absolutely beautiful - 'A Night with Taraji P. Henson' dinner event of Fox Networks Group Africa. 
ALSO READ: TV CRITIC'S NOTEBOOK. A Tale of Two Press Tours: Taraji P. Henson and Fox Africa, compared with Katherine Kelly Lang and the SABC - and the very striking difference between them.
ALSO READ: THE EMPIRE COMES BACK: Empire's Cookie, Taraji P. Henson is jetting back to South Africa for her second week-long visit.

TV CRITIC'S NOTEBOOK. A Tale of Two Press Tours: Taraji P. Henson and Fox Africa, compared with Katherine Kelly Lang and the SABC - and the very striking difference between them.

They're both American actresses, known to South African TV viewers, they both portray iconic characters in American dramatic series, both their shows are seen on both pay-TV and on free-to-air television in South Africa and Africa, they both visited South Africa this year, both went on safari - and both did press tours with the media.

Yet the stark, big and very visible difference between how bizarrely bad the SABC went about the visit of Katherine Kelly Lang of The Bold and the Beautiful on SABC3, and how excellent FOX Africa went about the visit of Taraji P. Henson of Empire of FOX (DStv 125 / StarSat 131 / Cell C black 201) couldn't be more striking.

The incredibly well-organised South African visit of Taraji P. Henson resulted in great media interaction between Fox Networks Group Africa (FNG Africa) and the local and international press during her time in South Africa.

That however just once again underscored what a shoddy, apparently clueless, botch-job the SABC did with Katherine Kelly Lang and the South African public broadcaster's unwillingness to do what's normal and actually expected (or possibly not knowing what to do) when it comes to an international TV star's visit.

I've remarked in September on the SABC's failure to properly communicate and it's utterly bizarre and inept Katherine Kelly Lang press tour so I won't go into the details again.

However, Taraji P. Henson's visit of the past week just again made it possible to directly compare the two.

The direct comparison - because both tried to do the same thing - underscores just how big the difference is between what is "normal" and "standard" when it comes to TV channels and broadcasters doing press events with international talent, and how far away the SABC is from knowing, doing or adhering to what is actually the international basic standard, and what is expected in and from the industry, as well as from the press.

The SABC's lack of doing proper (in fact, basically any) communication and its failure of working out and following a carefully thought-out strategy of unlocking value and exposure through engaging talent and press is what is the big, big problem standing between the SABC and getting what it wants, and what the press needs.

With Taraji P. Henson's visit to South Africa this week - and experiencing and peeking behind-the-scenes to see the precision, professionalism, speed, always-available, specifically targeted, rational and multi-dimensional approach of how FOX Africa's marketing and publicity machine operates - it was again painfully obvious how the SABC's marketing and publicity didn't do (or doesn't know how to do) any of that.

Because the SABC publicity team couldn't bother to properly communicate with media regarding Katherine Kelly Lang's visit, Fox Africa was so normal and did everything so properly and correct, that FOX seemed far above-average and brilliant in comparison with their Taraji P. Henson media blitz, although they actually just did what goes for normal and what is expected.

Even before Taraji P. Henson jetted to South Africa, and even before any public announcement, or media advisories or invitations to the press conference for general media, or invitations to the "A Night with Taraji" dinner were emailed out, or even before interviews were set up, Fox Africa already reached out to strategic press and media to communicate, to tell them about it, and to keep them in the loop as to what was being planned and what is likely to happen.

The result was that the media was informed. Fox Africa worked with the press as media partners beforehand and throughout the press tour.

In contrast the SABC with Katherine Kelly Lang and BBL did nothing remotely like this.

After Taraji P. Henson's Monday press conference this week, media who didn't attend, it physically immediately got an emailed dropbox with images for download, followed by quickly transcribed Taraji quotables from the media event.

Despite doing similar press events in Port Elizabeth and Johannesburg, an Isidingo set visit and on-set appearance on several SABC3 TV shows, the SABC and SABC3 never once bothered to send out even a single photo of any of it, nor any rush-transcript of what happened or quotables, or what Katherine Kelly Lang did on the Isidingo set.

Naturally, photos and information are available of Taraji P. Henson's Friday "A Night with Taraji" media dinner organised by Fox Africa, with national media from outside of Johannesburg who were also invited, knew weeks beforehand that it's being planned, and attended.

Of course the SABC and SABC3 couldn't bother to take or issue a single photo of Katherine Kelly Lang's Johannesburg media dinner or issue any press release about what she said and did at the dinner, that only Johannesburg media were invited to, with no information or anything shared with  national media from outside of Johannesburg.

Fox Africa - being strategic and forward-thinking to maximise value and to create a win-win for everybody, even before setting up and organising interviews - already started asking print media doing one-on-ones and sit-down interviews with Taraji P. Henson if they could please bank and slot in and run interviews only around March 2019.

In this way, when the broadcast of the 2nd half of the 5th season of Empire actually starts, the show gets more exposure when it's on the air, and media get more interaction with media consumers than now during the end-of-year period.

Who knows that the SABC and BBL's plan was with Kelly.

During her South African time, Fox Africa set up a carefully chosen set of phone interviews between Taraji P. Henson with international press for the Africa, Europe and Russia region; as well as specifically picked local radio, TV and print interviews.

Taraji P. Henson, her team and Fox Africa who know that less is often more, deliberately didn't do every media it could foist Taraji on, going for a strategic approach and seeking out interviews and appearances that would reach a cross-over audience and those media consumers who would know of and be interested in Taraji but also potentially already have been watching, or be interested in watching Empire.

In contract the SABC that basically almost completely ignored non-SABC media with Katherine Kelly Lang's visit, went for a seemingly spray-and-play approach, hilariously pushing Katherine onto almost every conceivable SABC regional radio and SABC TV show platform it could, whether Katherine Kelly Lang and The Bold and the Beautiful was an actual fit with that specific listenership like Umhlobo Wenene, and viewership or not.

Fox Africa publicity was constantly available during Taraji P. Henson's visit and communicated, responding to media's emails, calls and whatsapp messages.

During Katherine Kelly Lang's visit the SABC didn't bother to respond to all whatsapp, emails or calls from the press asking about it and wanting to know what is going on and happening.

Fox Africa's top marketing director and communication boss was directly involved in organising, was on the ground, hands-on, and involved with Taraji P. Henson's press tour and knew exactly what was going on.

With Katherine Kelly Lang's visit the SABC's top marketing and communication boss was not.

During Taraji P. Henson's press tour, Fox Africa marketing and publicity people didn't plaster photos and selfies with the star and themselves in public. They were, and kept behind-the-scenes, constantly working to get the star the exposure, which is what the job entails.

With Katherine Kelly Lang the SABC didn't miss opportunities to deliberately publicly push out on social media, by choice, images with the star.

Beforehand Fox Africa and Taraji P. Henson's team worked out in the finest detail the times and schedule of her diary for her whole visit of what she'll do.

When Katherine Kelly Lang got to Cape Town where she only did interviews with SABC radio and a few inserts on SABC3 TV shows, the SABC told the press waiting and wondering what's going on after not hearing back from the SABC, that "Katherine Kelly Lang is now tired".


ALSO READ: Taraji P. Henson at Fox Africa's 'A Night with Taraji' dinner event talks embracing change, Hollywood pay disparity, looking for solutions - and playing Cookie on Empire with 'the why'.
ALSO READ: IN PHOTOS: The exclusive, invite-only, golden delicious - and absolutely beautiful - 'A Night with Taraji P. Henson' dinner event of Fox Networks Group Africa.
ALSO READ: TV CRITIC'S NOTEBOOK. Outfoxed: How Fox Africa surprised South Africa's TV biz as it surged to first place with the best TV party of the year in mid-December and Empire's Taraji P. Henson.
ALSO READ: THE EMPIRE COMES BACK: Empire's Cookie, Taraji P. Henson is jetting back to South Africa for her second week-long visit.

Taraji P. Henson at Fox Africa's 'A Night with Taraji' dinner event talks embracing change, Hollywood pay disparity, looking for solutions - and playing Cookie on Empire with 'the why'.

Capping off her second visit to South Africa and a whirlwind 5-day press tour, Fox Africa on Friday evening held an invite-only, exclusive dinner event for the American actress Taraji P. Henson where she talked about embracing change, Hollywood's gender pay disparity and how she always plays her iconic character of Cookie on Empire with "the why".

During the dazzling 3-course dinner for the star of Empire on FOX (DStv 125 / StarSat 131 / Cell C black 201), the 143 invited guests - mostly women - listened as Taraji P. Henson talked about a wide-range of topics in front of the Fox Networks Group Africa executives and other top TV execs, top press and media celebrities, as well as bright rising South African female media stars.

Due to the high-profile nature of the event, access control was extremely tight - it was invite-only with names extremely carefully curated for the guest list for what was 2018's last South African TV party of the year.

Fox Africa's event dubbed "A Night with Taraji" was held at The Shed at Steyn City in Fourways, Johannesburg, where after red carpet arrivals, guests mingled with appetisers and cocktail drinks, followed by opening remarks from FNG Africa boss Evert van der Veer and FNG Africa marketing boss Khosi Khanyile.

Taraji P. Henson, asked how she go to be where she's now, implored guests to embrace change.

"The only way is to go out and do it. If I was scared to leave Washington D.C., would I be in South Africa? Change is scary because - it is scary. Because change is what you change to. You are not going to be the same. And that's scary."

"But if you embrace it, if you embrace the grey areas - I think we're so afraid of the grey areas. You want everything to be black and white and sometimes it's just not that."

"And as much faith as you have - how happy you are when everything is going right - you've got to have that same kind of faith when everything ain't going right because one day everything is going to go right."

"And when you find yourself in that dark tunnel, you've got to turn that light on," said Taraji P. Henson.

"You've got to be that light, and you also have to see the light at the end of the tunnel. You've got to see where you're going. Be the light and see the light."

Showing the 'why'
About why viewers have connected so strongly with Cookie Lyons on Empire on FOX, Taraji P. Henson said it's because she doesn't just play the character as written, one-dimensionally; but she infuses the strong female character with "the why".

"Cookie is just a tricky character. She is crazy and she fights and she will slap. But if you play just that, no-one's going to connect. Then she's just a sassy black woman - a stereotypical, ghetto out-and-out black woman, right? But how you connect is, you have to play the why."

"You always have to play 'the why'. Cookie was in jail. People are not human in jail. They are animals, they fight all the time. There's a reason why Cookie was fighting. There's a reason why she sold drugs."

Explaining from Cookie's perspective, Taraji P. Henson said "She was from the hood. She grew up in the hood. When you're back is up against the wall and you're young; find yourself young parents - I'm not dismissing selling drugs, I'm not saying it's okay - but I can understand it from a human standpoint because we're talking about survival."

"You have three black sons and we live in the hood. What we're trying to do is not have them fall in our footsteps. So we want to take our boys out so these three boys don't become statistics. Was that the best way to do it? No. But it was a way to do it."

"And when it was time to serve her time, Cookie did it. She didn't run. She chose to go to jail. And the writers didn't see this. And this is where it becomes important for the actor to see beyond what they give you. They just give you the bones and you've got to find the meat and the good stuff, right?"

"I said, 'Isn't it interesting that in the flashback you saw her come out the drug house with lots of money, she got in a car - she and Lucious and counting the money - so if it was a bust you know there was surveillance. You know they saw Lucious! So why didn't he go to jail? Because she took the fall," said Taraji P. Henson.

'Get around those who have your solutions'
From the many things her father used to say to her, Taraji P. Henson said the thing that she remembers most is "Get from around those people who have the same problems, and get around those who have your solutions. That's how I pick my friends."

"If you stay around people - especially if no-one is trying to come out of that situation, then all you do all day is complain, complain, complain about the circumstances. It's like crabs in a barrel. Whose going to rise up out of this? It's that simple."

"If you're a F-student and you're hanging around F-students, chances are you're going to fail. But if you're an F-student and you stop hanging out with the clowns in the back of class and go hang out with the A-students in the front of the class, chances are you might not have an F."

Hollywood's gender pay disparity
Taraji P. Henson also shared her insightful experience about doing the film, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, for which she got an Oscar nomination as Best supporting actress, and won Best actress at the BET Awards.

"I had to swallow my pride, I had to keep my ego in check. At this point in my career I haven't done a lot of big films, but I was making my way. And all I was asking for was $500 000. Now let me put this into perspective because some might go 'ooh that's a lot of money'."

"I believe if memory serves correctly, Brad Pitt was getting his $20 million quote. And I'm not taking anything away from Brad Pitt. Brad had worked his butt off all his career. He earned that. Cate Blanchett earned her quote - I believe it was $11 million. And again, why is she getting half? But whatever. I was just trying to get my $500 000."

"So it went $20 million, $11 million - to what they offered me: $150 000."

"It sounds like a lot, but 30% goes to my team, and 50% as tax goes to Uncle Sam. You do the math, how much is left? And I have the whole rest of the year to provide food, pay for my son's education, and pay for everything else with the rest of that money - gas, clothes, we have bills."

"But had I not checked my ego, I would have lost the moment. Because we're replaceable. 'Oh, you don't want it? Next.' That's what would have happened. Because the Taraji P. Henson then, is not the Taraji P. Henson now."

"Now I have Empire, I have audience, I have fans. So now I'm in the position where if that ever happens again, I just walk away."


Below is the opening remarks of Evert van der Veer, Fox Networks Group Africa vice-president and general manager:

Below is Khosi Khanyile, marketing director of Fox Networks Group Africa, sharing a personal anecdote and story about Taraji P. Henson:

Below is a short clip of Taraji P. Henson talking about embracing change in your life:

Editor's note: TVwithThinus did do a sit-down interview with Taraji P. Henson as well about her life and her character of Cookie and no questions were off limits. FOX asked for that to run around March 2019 in print when the second half of the 5th season of Empire starts on FOX, so check back for that revealing interview in two month's time.


ALSO READ: IN PHOTOS: The exclusive, invite-only, golden delicious - and absolutely beautiful - 'A Night with Taraji P. Henson' dinner event of Fox Networks Group Africa.
ALSO READ: TV CRITIC'S NOTEBOOK. Outfoxed: How Fox Africa surprised South Africa's TV biz as it surged to first place with the best TV party of the year in mid-December and Empire's Taraji P. Henson.
ALSO READ: THE EMPIRE COMES BACK: Empire's Cookie, Taraji P. Henson is jetting back to South Africa for her second week-long visit.

IN PHOTOS: The exclusive, invite-only, golden delicious - and absolutely beautiful - 'A Night with Taraji P. Henson' dinner event of Fox Networks Group Africa.

On Friday evening, Fox Networks Group Africa held an extremely exclusive, invite-only, and absolutely beautiful media event for the Empire actress Taraji P. Henson.

The dazzling 3-course dinner for the star of Empire on FOX (DStv 125 / StarSat 131 / Cell C black 201) was a brilliant bookend to her whirlwind second 5-day press tour visit to South Africa.

On the uber-exclusive guest list of 143 people - comprising mostly women - who snagged an invite to the top secret location, were FNG Africa executives and other top TV execs, top press and media celebrities, as well as bright rising South African female media stars.

Due to the high-profile nature of the event, access control was extremely tight - it was invite-only with names extremely carefully curated for the guest list for what was 2018's last South African TV party of the year.

Fox Africa's amazing Taraji P. Henson event dubbed "A Night with Taraji" was held at The Shed at Steyn City in Fourways, Johannesburg; inside what looks to be a massive, new aircraft hangar, beautifully decorated and customised for the intimate stage-and-screen and plated dinner evening.

So new is the ultra-exclus location that it doesn't appear on and is impossible to find on even Google Maps - the perfect place for a party with Taraji P. Henson.

After red carpet arrivals where guests mingled with appetisers and cocktail drinks, there followed opening remarks by FNG Africa boss Evert van der Veer and FNG Africa marketing boss Khosi Khanyile.

Then Anele Mdoda did an on-stage interview with Taraji P. Henson, followed by dinner and dessert.

A gleaming black dance floor beckoned where guests danced the night away with the event that was basked in hues of gold, white, black, and a dash of pink.

"A Night with Taraji"was not just mind-blowingly special, it was remarkable how "American Hollywood level" it was - something rarely seen and rarely successfully recreated by South African TV channels.

The whole event was extremely professional and brilliantly executed from beginning to end; very glamorous and very beautiful.

Most of all "A Night with Taraji" got that most elusive of ethereal qualities absolutely spot-on - being and feeling massive in scale, yet simultaneously feeling small, exclusive and intimate.

You saw it in the numerous small, very big, details: The enormous screen functioning as a stage backdrop; the waiter-to-guest ratio (constantly hovering waiters, constantly circulating with appetisers, taking drink orders, and plating food with basically no waiting time or having to look for someone to help); the flowers; the beautiful "American upfront"-like stage design and look; the smooth sound and audio-visual execution especially in a venue like this; and even Taraji P. Henson wearing a half-black, half-white dress mirrored by the table settings that had black chairs on the one side and transparent chairs on the other.

As 2018's South African television parties went, Fox Africa's "A Night with Taraji" in terms of quality, conceptualisation and creativity, execution, look, razzle-dazzle and ambience ranks at absolutely number one as a 3-way tie alongside M-Net's (DStv 101) The Wedding Bashers Give-back season "wedding reception dinner" and the bushveld under-the-trees Survivor SA: Philippines media launch.

Nothing else any other channels, broadcasters or shows did in 2018 came anywhere close to these three events and it was amazing and astounding how Fox Africa pulled off "A Night with Taraji" as a pitch-perfect year-ender media event for the who's who.

ALSO READ: Taraji P. Henson at Fox Africa's 'A Night with Taraji' dinner event talks embracing change, Hollywood pay disparity, looking for solutions - and playing Cookie on Empire with 'the why'.

ALSO READ: TV CRITIC'S NOTEBOOK. Outfoxed: How Fox Africa surprised South Africa's TV biz as it surged to first place with the best TV party of the year in mid-December and Empire's Taraji P. Henson.

ALSO READ: THE EMPIRE COMES BACK: Empire's Cookie, Taraji P. Henson is jetting back to South Africa for her second week-long visit.

THE EMPIRE COMES BACK: Empire's Cookie, Taraji P. Henson is jetting back to South Africa for her second week-long visit.

The Empire star, Taraji P. Henson is jetting back to South Africa for her second visit, and will spend a week in the country, once again soaking up the African sun, meeting fans, doing a press conference and media interviews and bringing her celebrity profile to some local charity work.

TVwithThinus can reveal that Taraji P. Henson will be in South Africa for another 5-day Empire press tour that will include a press conference this coming Monday. She will stay the whole week, closing off her visit with an exclusive "Women in Media" event.

Organisers of the latest visit have been extremely careful around the South African press tour of Taraji P. Henson who plays the beloved Cookie Lyon - after the scandal in August when 21st Century Group, that has since gone to ground, announced a now-controversial "International Women in Media Conference 2018".

21st Century Group that has nothing to do with 21st Century Fox but used an inverse form of its logo, lied and said that the event - that was quickly exposed as fake - would have headliners like the American stars Taraji P. Henson, Halle Berry and others in attendance as part of the line-up.

Taraji P. Henson quickly called out 21st Century Group for using and attaching her name to its bogus get-together, slamming it as "fake news".

Taraji P. Henson's latest and confirmed visit is however organised and overseen directly by her management and FOX Networks Group Africa (FNG Africa), that also managed her previous and first visit to South Africa back in June 2016.

Empire is going on its mid-season break for Christmas with its last new episode for the year this week on FOX (DStv 125 / StarSat 131 / Cell C black 201), with the second half of the 5th season of the American music industry drama that will start around March or April 2019 on FOX.

Earlier seasons of Empire is also broadcast on e.tv that picked up the free-to-air rights.

During her 2016 visit with co-star Terrence Howard, Taraji P. Henson signed autographs at the O.R. Tambo airport before she was whisked away, did media interviews and a press conference at the MultiChoice City headquarters, did meet-and-greets with Empire "super fans", and closed it off with an invite-only Empire South Africa VIP party in Johannesburg where they were ensconced in a VIP area within the VIP event.

The Golden Globe winner also made time to visit the Keep a Child Alive and Kliptown Youth (SKY) Foundation in Soweto.

While Empire, that didn't sell well in international distribution, struggles in the ratings and finding global audiences, the show and stars like Taraji P. Henson are popular and do resonate in TV markets like South Africa with her fashionable Cookie-couture, biting one-liners and "accidental" public faux pas like spilling wine in rivals.

Here, with a fast-growing middle-class TV audience rapidly switching to pay-TV, viewers are enthralled not just by the modern-day Alexis Carrington-like character's antics, but by the strong female empowerment message underlining the character's "cookie-crazy" facade.


ALSO READ: IN PHOTOS: The exclusive, invite-only, golden delicious - and absolutely beautiful - 'A Night with Taraji P. Henson' dinner event of Fox Networks Group Africa. 
ALSO READ: Taraji P. Henson at Fox Africa's 'A Night with Taraji' dinner event talks embracing change, Hollywood pay disparity, looking for solutions - and playing Cookie on Empire with 'the why'.