50 Cent says TV show ‘Empire’ lost 3m viewers over ‘gay stuff’

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Rapper 50 Cent has blamed the ratings drop on TV show ‘Empire’ on too much “gay stuff”.

Fox’s hip-hop drama ‘Empire’ premiered last week to 16 million viewers, but on its second episode airing on 30 September, viewing numbers fell to 13.7 million.

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The Candy Shop star, who produces similar show ‘Power’, took to Instagram, criticising the Fox show for the “gay stuff”.

The re-post shared by 50 Cent read: “There are 3 million less viewers who tuned into last night’s Empire episode!!!! did you watch it?”

“We could not take the extra gay stuff or celebrity stuff last night!!!!”

Creator of Empire, Lee Daniels, said he had hoped the show could give air time to its gay characters without rebuttal.

“With our first test screening, the audience loved everything, but when we showed Jamal kissing his boyfriend they hated it.” He told the Telegraph.

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50 Cent’s re-post

“I was hoping the message would be that it is cool to be gay, but I guess we’ve still got a long way to go.”

Cyndi Lauper has claimed that 50 Cent is now a “good guy” – despite once telling gay men to kill themselves.

In a 2010 spat with gay celebrity blogger Perez Hilton, 50 Cent tweeted: “Perez Hilton calld [sic] me douchebag so I had my homie shoot up a gay wedding. wasn’t his but still made me feel better.”

The same year, 50 Cent suggested that men who do not sleep with women should “just kill” themselves.

He wrote: “If you [are] a man and your [sic] over 25 and you don’t eat pu**y just kill yourself damn it. The world will be a better place.”