'90s sitcom reboot of 'Roseanne' delivered blockbuster viewership this week as Americans who voted for Trump finally saw their perspectives presented on screen in a way that didn't make fun of them.
ABC brought back the iconic working-class family and viewers responded in a big way. The network says the two-episode premiere attracted 18.2 million viewers. This reboot topped the 16.6 million viewers for the show's original finale and topped becomes the highest-rated sitcom episode since CBS's“The Big Bang Theory” eighth-season opener in 2014.
Roseanne Barr thanked viewers on Twitter:
Roseanne Barr ?@therealroseanne: I am so gratful to the fans of the Roseanne show for giving it a good Premiere rating. You are all wonderful-here is to making America laugh & talk again! LOVE U
The high ratings earned a call to Barr from President Trump.
The first episode tackled the political divide in American families. The main character, Roseanne, is an unapologetic Trump supporter who said candidate Trump talked about jobs and she even revealed that the family nearly lost their house because of the economy.
The episode focuses on Roseanne reuniting with her sister Jackie, who has become a pink-hat-wearing feminist who is bitter about her sister voting for Trump. The two stopped talking after the election but overcame their differences by recognizing each other's positions stem from a good heart.
Hopefully, families still in conflict over the 2016 election will learn from this tv family.
The Hollywood Reporter thinks that Hollywood will scramble to reboot some of their sitcoms to grab ratings:
The TV business always has been reactionary, so when something works, others immediately look for ways to replicate it. ABC, NBC and CBS all have classic sitcom revivals featuring the original casts on deck with Roseanne, Will & Grace and CBS’ upcoming Murphy Brown.
Rebooting old shows won't guarantee good ratings, but the success of 'Fuller House' on Netflix and now 'Roseanne' demonstrate an appetite for working-class families and middle-of-America values that we appreciated from the past.
Hollywood leans far left and their writers, producers, and actors are out-of-touch with the day-to-day concerns and desires of regular working people in parts of the country that they often ignore.
Perhaps they'll take a clue about what America wants to see on screen, but if they share Hillary Clinton's view of Americans in Middle America (that they are racist, sexist, and backward), then I wouldn't hold my breath.