After getting killed off of her own TV show, Roseanne Barr continues to get the last laugh. Network execs over at ABC never expected this to happen. The bad news just keeps coming.
Without the star-power of Roseanne Barr, “The Connors” is failing fast, losing 25 percent of its viewership in just the first week since it premiered on ABC. However, it did have some tough competition.
Fox easily won the Tuesday night ratings fight with Game 1 of the World Series, which provided some tough competition for Week 2 of “The Conners” (and everything else on TV). The “Roseanne” spinoff got plunked, shedding 25 percent of its debut viewers, and 26 percent of adults 18-49.
This time around, ABC’s “The Conners” posted a 1.7 rating/7 share and 7.9 million viewers at 8 p.m. Compare that with last week’s series premiere, which scored a 2.3/10 and 10.5 million viewers. [Source: The Wrap]
The premiere of “The Conners” itself was a massive letdown in ratings from the premiere of the “Roseanne” reboot in 2017, with 35% fewer viewers tuning in to the new sitcom, and many of those people only tuned in to see how Roseanne Barr’s beloved character was killed off.
Back in May, ABC made the decision to remove Roseanne Barr from her hit show after she posted on Twitter, saying former Obama aide Valerie Jarrett looked like the offspring of the “Muslim Brotherhood & Planet of the Apes.” Jarrett, who is black, was born in Iran to American parents, of which Barr claimed to be unaware.
“Roseanne’s Twitter statement is abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values, and we have decided to cancel her show,” ABC Entertainment president Channing Dungey said in a statement.
Disney chairman and CEO Bob Iger voiced his support for the cancellation, tweeting, “There was only one thing to do here, and that was the right thing.”
Barr deleted her tweet about Jarrett not long after posting it. She followed it up with an apology that read, “I apologize to Valerie Jarrett and to all Americans. I am truly sorry for making a bad joke about her politics and her looks. I should have known better. Forgive me-my joke was in bad taste. I am now leaving Twitter.” [Source: Variety]
Last Tuesday night, “The Connors” premiered without Barr and the ratings were disappointing. As many expected, the new series just doesn’t command the same audience as Roseanne’s hit show once did.
While no one really expected The Conners to hit the massive debut that the return of Roseanne had on March 27 after nearly 20 years off the air, the spinoff was barely ahead of the revival’s May 22 finale, at least in the early metrics. That “Knee Deep” finale episode came mere days before Barr’s racist online attack on former Barack Obama advisor Valerie Jarrett, and even by then the already renewed series had seen a double digit decline from the Season 10 opener. Which is to say, the finale was a reasonable benchmark for The Conners to reach.
Down 35% from the Roseanne opener, the debut of The Conners was just 4% better than the mothership series finale in metered market numbers. In fact, despite a massive marketing push, The Conners wasn’t even the highest rated show of Tuesday night. Though The Conners was ahead of This Is Us by 22% in the early numbers, it was the fourth episode of the 16th season of CBS’ NCIS that topped the night with a 8.1/13 in metered market results. [Source: Deadline]
Unsurprisingly, what was once one of the most popular shows on television, seems doomed to fail without Roseanne Barr. With ratings plummeting substantially by the week, “The Connors” likely will not last more than one season.
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