Roseanne reruns yanked from Hulu, Viacom channels
Hulu has joined Viacom and its channels in pulling Roseanne reruns, reps with knowledge of the decisions confirmed to EW Tuesday afternoon.
Paramount Network, TV Land, and CMT will all cease to air reruns of the series, while Hulu confirms it will remove the show from its library.
Starting tomorrow, syndicated episodes of the recently revived sitcom — which was axed by ABC earlier today after racist tweets from star/co-creator Roseanne Barr ignited a social media firestorm — will no longer run in rotation across the channels.
Laff, a digital network that specializes in reruns of popular sitcoms, has similarly yanked old episodes of the series. “While we believe viewers have always distinguished the personal behavior of the actress Roseanne Barr from the television character Roseanne Conner, we are disgusted by Barr’s comments this week,” read Laff’s official statement. “Therefore, we are removing the original Roseanne series from the Laff schedule for the time being, effective immediately.”
Barr’s ouster from the small screen — the unceremonious end to a spring season that saw her revived series debut to massive ratings for ABC and draw praise from, among others, Donald Trump — came swiftly on Tuesday after Barr posted racist attacks against former Obama advisor Valerie Jarrett, who is African-American,” writing that “muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby=vj.”
ABC’s entertainment president, Channing Dungey, announced that Roseanne was canceled just hours later, adding in a statement that “Roseanne’s Twitter statement is abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values.” Though the first season of Roseanne wrapped up last week, it had been renewed for a second season that was originally set to premiere in September.
