Fox may have endured a free fall at the ratings game, but the station is now back on top as Wednesday night's hip-hop drama Empire made a very strong debut.

Thanks to American Idol  that precedes the show on the schedule, Empire debuted with 9.8 million views and a 3.7 rating among 18-49 age demography, making it the studio's highest rating TV series for its debut night since 2012's Touch headlined on the No. 1 spot.

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The show beat the longtime winner of ABC, Modern Family.

Empire even trampled Fox's heavily promoted Gotham, which debuted last fall. The series also succeeded in sustaining its rating throughout its one-hour run.

While Empire made a grand entrance, American Idol, meanwhile, has been heading towards a downward spiral. Its season premier was cut to just one hour and was watched by 10.9 million viewers, a steep 34 percent decline compared to last year's viewership, marking the series' lowest for a premiere episode.

Gotham, on the other hand, is still going strong on its rating, a rather rare case for a serialized drama. So far, the greatest TV bomb produced by Fox was Utopia, which was cancelled at the middle of its supposed long run.

Other misses of the studio included Red Band Society, Gracepoint, and Mulaney.

TagsFOX, empire, American Idol