ABC Cancels ‘Roseanne’ Following Roseanne Barr’s ‘Repugnant’ Racist Tweet
Next time you Tweet, think twice about what you’re saying. It could get you fired, or get your TV series cancelled, not to mention be incredibly offensive.
Such is the fate of ABC’s Roseanne revival. The network announced today that Roseanne has effectively been canceled following the star’s racist tweet from Monday. In the since-deleted tweet, Roseanne Barr took aim at Valerie Jarrett, a former advisor to President Barack Obama, comparing her to an ape. In the tweet, Barr wrote “muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby=vj,” with the initials “vj” referencing Jarrett. Barr was quickly under fire for the tweet, and on Tuesday took to Twitter to apologize for the comment, calling it a “joke” in “bad taste.”
On Tuesday afternoon, the network denounced Barr’s tweet as “abhorrent and repugnant” and announced the show’s cancellation in a press release. The statement, from ABC Entertainment president Channing Dungey, reads:
Roseanne’s Twitter statement is abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values, and we have decided to cancel her show.
The cancellation came after Wanda Sykes announced she was pulling out of the show as a consulting producer on Tuesday afternoon. Disney chairman Bob Iger added to Dungey’s statement, saying “There was only one thing to do here, and that was the right thing.”
Prior to the cancellation, ABC had already renewed Roseanne for another season.
Update: Following the series cancellation, Barr was dropped from her talent agency.
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