How The ‘Roseanne’ Reboot Might Change Television
Roseanneis shaking up Hollywood. TheRoseannereboot premiered to massive ratings Tuesday night, drawing more viewers than any network sitcom has in four years. Not only that, the premiere snagged more viewers than its 1997 finale 21 years ago.
So what does that mean for the TV landscape? First of all, you can count on therevival phenomenonto keep going strong. But the more intriguing effect ofRoseanne’s gargantuan success is that we could see a new era in middle America sitcoms. Or maybe it’s a combination of both. You may finally find out whichFriendscharacter would have voted for Donald Trump.
TheRoseannereboot premiered to an astonishing 18.2 million viewers along with an equally impressive 5.1 rating among adults 18-49, according toEntertainment Weekly.
The massive numbers shocked the world, includingRoseanne’s network ABC, which projected half the numbers than the premiere drew. Not only wereRoseanne’sratings the highest for any network comedy sinceThe Big Bang Theory’s 2014 premiere, it was also 10 percent better than the 16.6 million viewers the original 1997 series finale hauled in. It’s bigger than the final 12 episodes from that ‘97 run.
Roseanne’s surprise success could be attributed to those oh-so-powerful nostalgia goggles, but the sitcom about a blue-collar American family living in middle America may actually be tapping into something deeper: Trump country.
Roseanne and Trump Country
Like the former reality show host who rose from left-field stunt Republican candidate to president of the United States America,Roseanne’s runaway success shocks everyone and no one at all. Hollywood executives may be left scratching their heads, butRoseannepresents the perfect sweet spot between rose-colored nostalgia for simpler times and current political unrest. The frustrated working class voters who pushed Trump into office are unsurprisingly the prime audience forRoseanne.
According toDeadline, top TV markets whereRoseannedelivered its highest ratings were in states carried by Trump in the election. No. 1 was Tulsa in Oklahoma, which Trump won with 65.3% of the vote. It was followed by Cincinnati, Ohio and Kansas City, Missouri. The only city from a blue state in the Top 10 was Chicago, where the series is set. If you want to know how much this show has resonated with Trump voters, look to the man himself, whomade a personal callto starRoseanne Barrto congratulate her for the high ratings. Because, you know, he has so much time.
But there’s the question of whetherRoseanneis truly a show “from and about Trump voters.” Roseanne Barr has certainly become a lightning rod for heralt-right political views, with her support for Trump threatening to overshadow the show itself. It’s a 180 from when the show first premiered in 1988. During its original run,Roseannewas considered a groundbreaking progressive show about an average middle-class family. Roseanne became a feminist icon of sorts for her “meanness,” her fearlessness to say what she meant.
But manycritics questionwhether the revived show itself reflects Barr’s trollish, conspiracy theory-peddling politics. “Roseanne is back wearing a Trump hat, but showing progressive tendencies,“Vulturewrites. “The Conners of 2018 did vote for Trump … but the rebootedRoseanneis not a forum for Barr’s ideologies,“Buzzfeedwrites. Like its spiritual predecessorAll in the Family,Roseannemay in fact be a harsh examination of the very middle-American audience that watches it so religiously.
What Could Change?
For now, a second season ofRoseanneis a “foregone conclusion,” co-showrunner Whitney Cummings toldTV Line. While its international distribution is up in the air because of an unusual deal withABC’s owner Disney, you can expectRoseanneto have a domino effect on Hollywood and the TV landscape.
Revivals of working-class, blue-collar shows likeKing of the Hillcould very well already be in the works. And TV networks — like theNew York Times before them— will likely turn their attention to producing more comedies that appeal to that “under-represented” Trump country demographic.
I’ll leave it to someone more well-versed in TV sitcoms than me to debate whether middle America is truly under-served on television. But arguments thatRoseanneis the first sitcom to truly show working-class Americans ignoresAll in the Familybefore it, and the beloved Netflix sitcomOne Day at a Timeairing now. As well as thescores of African-American-led sitcomsthat have largely been ignored by the revival phenomenon.
