Empire is one of the most popular TV shows on cable, so it goes without saying that the two-hour series finale performed as expected with high ratings and viewership.

On Wednesday, March 18, Empire managed to garner 16.7 million viewers and a rating of 6.5.

The Fox hip-hop drama kicked off on a massive scale and ended similarly. It is clear that Empire has a bright future because this is just season 1. Here's hoping the writers will have a lot of room to innovate in season 2 and the seasons after.

Last week, the show drew in 14.7 million viewers and a 5.6 rating. This week, close to 17 million viewers tuned in. Not every TV show gains some 3 million viewers on the next shot.

We understand that Empire is the only show on network television that managed to climb 21 percent in the key demo area and 19 percent in total viewer numbers for the first hour. From this, one can clearly realize that Fox achieved the highest rating of any other network on a single night.

Interestingly enough, the marks Empire received allowed it to surpass the CBS hit Big Bang Theory in ratings. Not an easy task to walk all over Big Bang Theory as if it was nothing.

Despite all our chit chatting about Empire, we should point out that other networks aired their shows on Wednesday. Survivor came in second place with 9.5 million viewers, while CSI: Cyber took the third spot with 7.9 million.

On Tuesday, nothing was out of order. The Flash and Agents of SHIELD aired, and the ratings were nothing spectacular. The CW superhero hit earned 3.69 million viewers with a rating of 1.3. On the matter of Marvel's first TV show, it did better than The Flash where viewership is concerned. Agents of SHIELD garnered 4.34 million viewers and a rating of 1.6.

We can only hope both shows increase viewership and ratings next week because it is quite weak when compared to other shows. However, while we may have this thought, the gains in viewership and ratings are great for The CW, so the network has nothing to worry about.

Be sure to follow T-Lounge on Twitter and visit our Facebook page