'American Idol', 'Empire' Premiere Dates Set- Find Out When The Highly Anticipated Shows Are Set To Hit Your Screens

Fox have reveled the premiere dates for its two flagship programs for 2015, American Idol and the Lee Daniels-helmed, Terrence Howard-starring hip-hop drama Empire.

Idol will be returning for its 14th season, reports hitfix.com, "with a two-night three-hour premiere on Wednesday Jan. 7 at 8 p.m. and Thursday, Jan. 8 from 8 p.m."

All of the judges from last season will return too, meaning we'll be reunited with Jennifer Lopez, Keith Urban and Harry Connick Jr. Longtime host Ryan Seacrest- the only remaining original Idol cast member after Randy Jackson confirmed he won't be back as a mentor this year - will also return. 

The Idol auditions this year wound their way through Minneapolis, New Orleans, Uniondale (NY), Nashville and San Francisco, and wrapped up at the end of September. The initial Thursday Idol shows will run for two hours form 8 p.m. As reported earlier this year by the LA Times, Idol will scale back the total amount of hours it will run in 2015, from over 50 hours this year, to less than 40 for next season.   

Empire, the heavily promoted musical drama starring Terrence Howard and Taraji P Henson (both of whom have been nominated for an Oscar) will premiere straight after Idol on Wednesday Jan. 7 at 9 p.m. You can watch the trailer for the series below. 

The series will follow Henson, reports Paste, "as Cookie Lyon, the ex-wife of Lucious Lyon (Howard), who owns a hip-hip record label." It will be produced by filmmaker Lee Daniels (Precious, Lee Daniels' The Butler)

As for Idol... we wonder, with Sir Mix-A-Lot having recently revealed that J-Lo was the inspiration behind his 1992 classic "Baby Got Back", if anyone will have the stones to perform it in front of the R'n'B superstar?