Empire (TV Series)
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50 free Empire (TV Series) trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Empire arrived on Fox in 2015 and became a phenomenon almost overnight: a glossy, music-filled family saga about a hip-hop mogul, his formidable ex-wife and the sons competing to inherit the company they built. Its audience grew week after week through the first season, and Cookie Lyon became one of television's most talked-about characters. This quiz covers the whole run: the Lyon family and their rivals, the twists and betrayals, the cast and the famous faces who dropped in, the original songs, and the stories behind how the show was made. Every question comes with a short explanation, so you learn something even when you miss. Most questions suit anyone who watched the show, with a few tougher ones for fans who remember every boardroom coup. Use it for a watch-party quiz, a trivia night round or a quick test of how well you know Cookie and Lucious.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which Shakespeare tragedy about an aging ruler and his heirs was a model for Empire's Lyon family saga?
King Lear
King Lear was the template: a dying music mogul tests his three sons much as Shakespeare's old king tests three daughters. One critic called the show the play retold with hip hop as the backdrop.
Q 02Empire's story unfolds in New York, but in which Midwestern city was the Fox drama actually filmed?
Chicago
Chicago doubled for New York throughout the run. The pilot was shot at the city's Cinespace studios in March 2014, two months before Fox ordered a full series.
Q 03On Empire, which mocking nickname does Cookie Lyon give Anika Calhoun, her rival for Lucious?
Boo Boo Kitty
Boo Boo Kitty became Cookie's standing insult for Anika, the polished label executive engaged to Lucious when Cookie came home. The feud lasted until Anika's fatal fall in the season four finale.
Q 04Which actress plays Cookie Lyon, the Empire matriarch who leaves prison to claim half the family label?
Taraji P. Henson
Taraji P. Henson took the part only because her manager sent the script anyway: she had sworn off television, and said the character scared her when she first read it.
Q 05Which condition does eldest son Andre Lyon, the finance chief of Empire Entertainment, struggle with?
Bipolar disorder
Bipolar disorder was settled on after showrunner Ilene Chaiken pushed the creators to define what they had planned only as some form of mental illness. Andre's actor studied a relative who lives with it.
Q 06Empire's first soundtrack album debuted at number one in March 2015, beating Rebel Heart by which pop superstar?
Madonna
Madonna actually sold more albums that week, but streaming of the show's songs pushed the cast recording past her on the Billboard 200.
Q 07Which animated Fox series spoofed Empire in The Great Phatsby, an hour-long episode with a Cookie-like ex-wife?
The Simpsons
The Simpsons cast Empire's own leading lady as Praline, the furious ex-wife of a hip-hop mogul who swindles Mr. Burns. It was promoted as the cartoon's first hour-long episode.
Q 08The actor behind Empire mogul Lucious Lyon first played James Rhodes in which 2008 Marvel superhero film?
Iron Man
Iron Man was his only outing as Rhodey: he was reportedly offered a steep pay cut for the sequel, and another actor took over the role.
Q 09Which hit-making producer did Lee Daniels hire, on his own children's advice, to create Empire's original songs?
Timbaland
Timbaland got the call because Daniels thought his own taste was dated and asked his son and daughter whom to hire. Twelve songs were produced for the pilot alone, and he stayed for two seasons.
Q 10What forced Empire to end its sixth and final season two episodes early in 2020, with its planned finale unfilmed?
The COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic shut down filming in March 2020, so episode 18 became the finale, with footage from the unfinished nineteenth cut in to give the Lyons some closure.
Q 11Which Oscar-nominated actor plays Lucious Lyon, the rapper-turned-mogul who founded Empire Entertainment?
Terrence Howard
Terrence Howard was pushed for the part by Cookie's actress, a former co-star who said she would turn down her own role without him.
Q 12Cookie Lyon returns home in Empire's pilot after a 17-year prison sentence for which crime?
Drug dealing
Drug dealing paid for Lucious's first recordings, and Cookie took the fall alone. That is why she walks out demanding half of the company her money launched.
Q 13Which actor and singer plays Jamal Lyon, the gay middle son his father rejects on Empire?
Jussie Smollett
Q 21In Empire's first-season finale, Lucious Lyon learns his ALS was a misdiagnosis of which treatable condition?
Myasthenia gravis
Myasthenia gravis had been the plan since the very first pitch, the show's writer said, though one critic complained that the reprieve made a brave storyline meaningless.
Q 22Which cousin of Cookie Lyon does Lucious shoot dead in Empire's pilot after a $3 million blackmail demand?
Bunkie
Bunkie wanted the money for gambling debts. The killing haunts the whole first season: Lucious confesses to it in his sleep, and it gets him arrested at the finale's celebration concert.
Q 23In which East Coast city did Lucious and Cookie Lyon grow up and raise their sons before founding Empire?
Philadelphia
Jussie Smollett co-wrote the song Jamal uses to come out on stage in season one. He was written out before the final season after being charged with filing a false police report.
Q 14Which ABC prime-time soap opera did Lee Daniels name as a major influence on the Lyon family feuds of Empire?
Dynasty
Dynasty gave Cookie part of her DNA: Daniels based her partly on Joan Collins's scheming Alexis, along with women in his own life such as his sister.
Q 15Empire's two leads had already played a couple in which 2005 film about a pimp who dreams of becoming a rapper?
Hustle & Flow
Hustle & Flow earned its leading man an Oscar nomination, and a song the pair performed in it won the Academy Award for Best Original Song. That history is why Cookie's actress lobbied for him.
Q 16Which award did Cookie Lyon's actress win in January 2016 for Empire, the third Black woman to take its drama prize?
Golden Globe
Golden Globe voters named her best actress in a television drama, which only Gail Fisher and Regina Taylor had managed before her. The Emmys nominated her twice for Cookie without a win.
Q 17Which supermodel plays Camilla Marks, the older fashion designer who becomes Hakeem Lyon's secret lover on Empire?
Naomi Campbell
Naomi Campbell's Camilla is paid by Lucious to leave the country, then returns in season two as the wife of a venture capitalist and seizes the company for Hakeem.
Q 18Which star of Lee Daniels's film Precious plays Becky Williams, Lucious Lyon's assistant at Empire Entertainment?
Gabourey Sidibe
Gabourey Sidibe earned a Best Actress Oscar nomination for Precious, her first film. Her Becky climbs from the boss's assistant to head of A&R by season four.
Q 19Empire released its songs on iTunes every week, copying a strategy used by which earlier Fox musical series?
Glee
Glee supplied the release plan but not the style: the hip-hop drama's songs are performed by characters who are working artists, in studios and on stage, as the plot demands.
Q 20Which pop diva guest-starred in Empire's third season as a superstar singer who records with Jamal Lyon?
Mariah Carey
Mariah Carey had been promised a year earlier, when it was announced she would appear in a top-secret role during season two. She arrived a season late.
Philadelphia is also the real hometown of Lee Daniels, who said Lucious is a lot like his own father. Jamal later takes Lucious back to the family's old house there.
Q 24Which stand-up comedian plays Frank Gathers, the crime boss Cookie Lyon once informed on, in Empire's second season?
Chris Rock
Chris Rock was first announced as playing himself, before the producers revealed he would be the kingpin whose return from Cookie's past threatens her family.
Q 25Which actor, once Jonathan on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, created Empire with director Lee Daniels?
Danny Strong
Danny Strong first imagined the story as a film while driving around Los Angeles, and it was Daniels who told him it belonged on television. He had already won an Emmy for writing HBO's Game Change.
Q 26Empire's third season ends with a car explosion in Las Vegas that leaves Lucious Lyon with which condition?
Amnesia
Amnesia strikes just as the family reunites, so Cookie runs the company as chief executive in season four while a nurse named Claudia tries to keep Lucious to herself.
Q 27Empire's pilot premiered in January 2015 straight after the season opener of which Fox reality show?
American Idol
American Idol was the lead-in for a premiere that drew nearly 10 million viewers, Fox's highest-rated debut in three years. The audience then grew every week, reaching more than 17 million for the finale.
Q 28Which young rapper, taken under Lucious Lyon's wing on Empire, accidentally shoots Jamal in the second season?
Freda Gatz
Freda Gatz is the daughter of Frank Gathers, and Lucious treats her as a surrogate child after her father's murder. The shooting leaves Jamal with PTSD and a reliance on painkillers.
Q 29Which 1990s film star joined Empire as Claudia, the nurse who grows possessive of Lucious Lyon after his accident?
Demi Moore
Demi Moore was announced in February 2017 for the season three finale and stayed on as a recurring guest through season four, where Cookie soon suspects the nurse's motives.
Q 30Andre Lyon, the only son on Empire without a music career, earned his business degree at which elite school?
Wharton
Wharton made Andre the brains of the business: he is credited with lifting the label into the Fortune 500, and as the eldest he sees running it as his birthright.