Judge James Linn set opening statements in the case for 4:45 p.m.

Those selected for the panel included a woman who says she’s watched “Empire” before and likes to drag race in her spare time, a man who emigrated from Iraq 12 years ago and works for a credit union, and a woman from west suburban Bartlett who’s a counselor at a behavioral hospital.

Linn has said he may let evidence continue until 7 p.m.

In his first round of questioning, Linn had asked specifically whether jury candidates had heard about the case in the news, seen “Empire,” watched the celebrity gossip site TMZ, or belong to any civil rights or anti-police groups.

About five people raised their hands indicating they’d never heard of the Smollett allegations.

So far only one prospective juror, a white woman, has said she might not be able to be fair, explaining that she’d done research on the case early on.

“When I found out it was a hate crime, my daughter is gay, so I did some research on that,” the woman said.

When Linn pressed her on her ability to set that aside and render a fair verdict, the woman said she was still unsure.