In a statement yesterday afternoon, ABC's network president Channing Dungey announced the cancelation of the Roseanne reboot, following its titular star Roseanne Barr's racist tweets.
"Roseanne's Twitter statement is abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values, and we have decided to cancel her show," Channing's statement reads (via The Daily Beast's Kevin Fallon).
"It's a question of right and wrong, and it's a question of our company's values" an ABC source told CNN, who described the cancelation as "a shock in Hollywood."
The comedian Wanda Sykes, who had served as a consulting producer on the show, had previously announced Tuesday that she was quitting ahead of its second season.
ABC's decision follows much controversy over a particularly racist and Islamophobic tweet Roseanne shared Monday night, in which she described Valerie Jarrett, a senior advisor to President Obama, as the baby of "muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes." After being resoundingly criticised for the message, Roseanne later deleted the tweet, claiming it was a joke, and said she was signing off Twitter for good.
Roseanne has since been dropped by her talent agency, ICM, who described her tweets as "antithetical to our core values, both as individuals and as an agency."
Ahead of an appearance Tuesday night on MSNBC, Valerie said she "was fine," but "worried about all the people out there who don't have a circle of friends and followers who come right to their defence." She said she hoped Roseanne's bigotry — and the response to it — would be a "teaching moment."
Via The Hollywood Reporter, Roseanne's showrunner offered a statement: "On behalf of all the writers and producers, we worked incredibly hard to create an amazing show.
"I was personally horrified and saddened by the comments and in no way do they reflect the values of the people who worked so hard to make this the iconic show that it is."
A sampling of other recent tweets and RTs on Roseanne's feed, though, include her erroneously stating Chelsea Clinton's middle name as Soros (a reference to the billionaire George Soros, whom Roseanne also repeatedly smeared) as well as assailing her appearance, her supporting Tommy Robinson, the far-right founder of the English Defence League, and her sharing Pizzagate conspiracy theories — all within the past 12-14 hours.
The reboot had been previously picked up for a second season immediately following its record-breaking premiere back in March, and had proved to be a ratings hit — despite often clumsily dealing with issues of race, prejudice, and social justice in modern-day America. At the time, Channing said the ABC was "thrilled that America has welcomed the Conner family back into their homes."
Continuing to note that the show remained "as fresh and relevant today" as it proved to be in '90s, Channing teased that "we can’t wait to see what the Roseanne team has in store for next year." Suffice to say that network execs didn't see this Twitter shitshow coming then — even though, really, they all should have?
