ABC has cancelled its top-rated hit TV show “Roseanne” following a Monday night tweet storm from the show’s creator and lead star, Roseanne Barr.
Channing Dungey, ABC Entertainment president, confirmed in a statement that the network decided to cancel the hit reboot saying, “Roseanne’s Twitter statement is abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values, and we have decided to cancel her show.”
On Monday night, Barr attacked former Obama Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett, using Jarrett’s initials, tweeting, “muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby=vj.”
Bob Iger, Chairman and CEO of The Walt Disney Company, which owns ABC, reinforced Dungey’s decision on Twitter saying, “There was only one thing to do here, and that was the right thing.”
ICM Partners also dropped Barr as a client following the tweets. In a statement, the agency said, “What she wrote is antithetical to our core values, both as individuals and as an agency. Consequently, we have notified her that we will not represent her. Effective immediately, Roseanne Barr is no longer a client.”
Barr issued an apology on Tuesday morning on Twitter stating, “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.”
The highly-rated show was a commercial success for ABC with an average 21.17 million total viewers, making it one of the top viewed shows in 2018.
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