Today's Evil Beet Gossip

‘Empire’ cutting Jussie from final episodes

Executive producers of “Empire” announced on Friday that they’re scrubbing Jussie Smollett‘s character from the final two episodes this season.

“The events of the past few weeks have been incredibly emotional for all of us. Jussie has been an important member of our EMPIRE family for the past five years and we care about him deeply,” several of the producers, including Lee Daniels, said in a statement released by 20th Century Fox Television.

“While these allegations are very disturbing, we are placing our trust in the legal system as the process plays out. We are also aware of the effects of this process on the cast and crew members who work on our show and to avoid further disruption on set, we have decided to remove the role of ‘Jamal’ from the final two episodes of the season.”