(This post may contain disputed claims. We make no assertions as to the validity of the information presented by our Opinion Columnist. We are an opinion blog, not a traditional news outlet, and this post should be treated as such. Enjoy.)Despite a triumphant revival, ABC canceled Roseanne after its star posted a distasteful tweet. Quickly, they tried to fix the mistake by remaking the show… without Roseanne Barr. Now, as the new show is about to debut, they’ve shared some bad news.
Let’s get this out of the way first: the tweet Roseanne posted was pretty bad. It’s completely understandable how some Americans viewed it as racist. According to the actress, she posted it late at night, while under the influences of Ambien. Most people will tell you that drug does some crazy things with your brain.
Worst still was the shocking reaction by ABC, in the aftermath of that tweet. The overwhelming negative backlash online forced them to fire the woman and cancel her show. Think about that for a minute. The Roseanne reboot was bringing in over 20 million viewers an episode. That doesn’t include all the people who watched it via streaming apps.
In an age when TV shows are lucky to get a couple million viewers, Roseanne was doing the impossible. Yet, after a single bad tweet, ABC kills the show.
Most people (rightly) said it was because Roseanne was a strong Donald Trump supporter in real life. The new show touched on political and social issues very dear to conservatives’ hearts (like jobs, immigrants, and family values). It’s hard not to think ABC used the tweet as an excuse to get rid of the popular Trump-supporting personality.
Rubbing salt in the wound was their decision to bring back the show, minus Roseanne. Proving once and for all it had everything to do with the woman and her views. But if you were to gauge fans’ reaction to this move, they are not pleased.
Bringing back the Conners — without Roseanne — just might be the dumbest thing ever. Especially when we learned that her character would be killed off in the new show. I mean, does ABC even think before they make decisions?
Now, as the show is set to debut this season, ABC executives finally realize the massive mistake they made.
Top ABC brass may have acted too swiftly by pulling the plug on Roseanne – and they now fear the show’s replacement spin-off will flop without its star.
Two senior executives at the network have told DailyMailTV that firing the actress was a ‘knee-jerk’ reaction by ABC’s president and admitted that temporarily suspending Barr may have been a wiser decision.
‘We didn’t think it through properly. What Roseanne did was wrong but we shouldn’t have rushed to fire her. It was almost a knee-jerk reaction by Ben [Sherwood] and Channing [Dungey] who should have launched an investigation,’ one insider said.
‘This would have given them more time to listen to the public, advertisers and cast members to determine the best decision.’ [Source: Daily Mail]
Let me help ABC come to a conclusion: yes it was a very bad idea to fire Roseanne. This is not like the James Gunn incident, where ABC/Disney discovered the director had years’ worth of pedophilia-themed tweets. This was a popular actress — with a huge hit on her hands — who posted ONE foolish tweet.
All they had to do was ask her to delete it and issue an apology. Then let it blow over before the new season began.
Most viewers know Roseanne isn’t racist. And they’d be quick to forgive if she apologized (which she in fact did). Her firing was more than “knee-jerk,” in this writer’s opinion. It was something they wanted to do for a while, given her support of the POTUS.
Now, they are realizing they could have made a much better choice and spared the hit show its star.
“They could’ve suspended her from the first few episodes without pay and had her return later on in the season,” the source explained. “I mean the season finale saw Roseanne going to the hospital for knee surgery. While they worked out her fate, her character could have faced serious complications and fought for her life, while simultaneously making Roseanne fight for her career with a national apology tour.”
“The morning the racist tweet scandal blew up, Roseanne offered to publicly apologize and do the rounds of every show but Ben and Channing weren’t having any of that and wanted her gone,” they continued. “Why not have her front a PSA for the network on racism and cyberbullying?” [Source: Breitbart]
Those could have all been good ideas. Honestly, anything would have been better than what they did.
Now they are learning what we’ve been saying all along.
“When we greenlit The Conners we thought that the public would tune in to see the family return but what we’ve discovered is that people want Roseanne – they don’t want the family by themselves,” they explained.
“The marketing and publicity teams are horrified as no matter what promotional material is released – and let’s be honest it’s been limited for a show that launches next Tuesday – Roseanne’s fans come out in force stating that they won’t watch the show.” [Source: Daily Mail]
Um… DUH! Roseanne was the star of the show. Most people watched to see her. Add to that the fact that many, many viewers believe she was fired for her support of Trump, does ABC really expect the same audience to tune in?
They are already terrified about the ratings. If the show crashes, they’re out of luck. Roseanne will most-likely never come back. A huge win for the network is lost forever because of their executives’ stupidity. Maybe next time, they’ll learn not to attack popular conservatives. Just a thought.
