ABC cancels Roseanne after Roseanne Barr tweets racist 'joke'

Roseanne cast. — (Image credit: Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)

ABC announced Tuesday that it has canceled the Roseanne reboot after Roseanne Barr made a racist and Islamophobic "joke" on Twitter. "Roseanne's Twitter statement is abhorrent, repugnant, and inconsistent with our values, and we have decided to cancel her show," said ABC in a statement.

Barr had apologized for her tweet, saying it was "in bad taste," and claimed she was "leaving Twitter" following the resulting backlash. The first season of the Roseanne reboot averaged approximately 19.3 million viewers, making it "the highest-rated and most-watched series of the broadcast season, eclipsing NBC's This Is Us and CBS' Big Bang Theory," The Hollywood Reporter writes.

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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.