'Empire' building continues in Nielsens

Where will it end?

As Fox's soapy hit Empire enters the first season's home stretch, ratings continue to climb, with Wednesday's eighth episode averaging 13.9 million viewers, up by four million from the Jan. 7 series premiere. On average, the show has also gained about 5 million DVR-delayed viewers from its live total this season, and still more on demand and online.

The family drama about a hip-hop music business, starring Terrence Howard and Taraji P. Henson, has increased its same-day audience every week since it began, an extremely rare accomplishment. It's the biggest gainer among scripted series since Fox's House, which premiered sluggishly in 2004 but became a massive hit, peaking at 27.3 million viewers with a regularly scheduled episode in 2007. (A show's premiere is often its highest-rated episode.)

Among young-adult viewers, Empire is the top-rated drama on broadcast TV, eclipsing NBC's The Blacklist and ABC's How to Get Away with Murder and Scandal, and the No. 2 series, behind only CBS's The Big Bang Theory.

Where it will stop is anyone's guess, but there are only three weeks left in the 12-episode first season, which ends with a 2-hour finale on March 18. Don't fear, Empire fans, it's already been renewed a probably longer Season 2, due this fall.