ABC has canceled its successful Roseanne reboot following the comedian’s indefensible racist tweet storm from this morning. Amongst many egregious tweets, Roseanne tweeted out about Obama administration advisor Valerie Janet saying: “muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby=vj”. The comment seemed like an obviously racist comment to Valerie Janet’s race, and the fallout began quickly. Wanda Sykes, the head writer on the show for the first reason, announced on Twitter that she will no longer be involved with Roseanne, writing —
I will not be returning to @RoseanneOnABC.
— Wanda Sykes (@iamwandasykes) May 29, 2018
Wanda Sykes isn’t the first high profile person to leave the show, with producer Whitney Cummings having abdicated the program just a few months ago. These tweets must come as no surprise to ABC, who knew about the star’s racist tweets long before the first episode of the reboot aired. Tweets included harassment of Parkland shooting survivor David Hogg and regular sentiments of antisemitism and racism. Much has been made of Roseanne’s support of Donald Trump, but it’s the mirroring of his bigotry that has been most upsetting. This tweet seemed to be the straw that broke the camel’s back, and Roseanne tweeted an apology and a promise to get off of Twitter.
https://twitter.com/therealroseanne/status/1001470384556752898
https://twitter.com/therealroseanne/status/1001471669641216005
However, it was not enough. ABC has announced that they are canceling the reboot. The statement was terse, and said in full: “Roseanne’s Twitter statement is abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values, and we have decided to cancel her show.” The statement came from ABC Entertainment president Channing Dungey. Bob Iger, president of Disney, himself weighed in calling the act of canceling “the only… thing to do here”.
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From Channing Dungey, President of ABC Entertainment: "Roseanne's Twitter statement is abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values, and we have decided to cancel her show."
There was only one thing to do here, and that was the right thing.— Robert Iger (@RobertIger) May 29, 2018
This is all the more a shocking decision considering that Roseanne was the #1 sitcom, and Roseanne herself introduced Channing Dungey at the upfronts jokingly calling her responsible for her tweets. The success of the show was believed in part to be responsible for Fox bringing back Tim Allen’s “Last Man Standing”, and now that the star’s toxic bigotry has played out in full, we will see how the other networks react as the public turns its back on this kind of thinking.
What do you think though? Was ABC right or wrong to cancel Roseanne? Let us know in the comments and make sure to follow us on Twitter at @WhatsTrending.
