ABC Take A Stand

June 1, 2018

If you have nothing nice to tweet, you shouldn’t tweet at all is something Roseanne Barr does not practice. The sitcom Roseanne made a triumphant return in March on ABC. After a successful reboot almost due decades later, the show was slated to get a 13 episode second season in September. But, when Roseanne Barr took to Twitterand posted extremely racist remarks, ABC pulled the show. The show drew great ratings but the vulgar words caused the negative to outweigh the positive for the network, “The sudden cancellation of a hit show — it had the highest ratings of a new TV series in years — because of offscreen controversy was almost without precedent.” It was said that the show brought in $45 million and was expected to make even more during its sophomore season. But, for Disney (ABC’s parent company) there was more to lose if they kept the show. “The company has been widely praised in recent years as a leader in efforts to combat racial stereotypes through its movies and TV series, whether on “Doc McStuffins,” a Disney Channel cartoon about an African-American girl who wants to be a doctor; “How to Get Away With Murder,” a vehicle for Viola Davis that led her to become the first black woman to win a lead-actress Emmy.” The cancellation of this show signified that the company won’t stand for racism. Do you think they made the right decision in cancelling the hit?

 

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