Viacom is pulling “Roseanne” reruns from its Paramount Network, TV Land and CMT channels, a person with knowledge of the decision told TheWrap on Tuesday.
The syndication scheduling change, which follows ABC’s cancellation of the hit series’ recent revival, will go into effect on Wednesday.
Additionally, Laff, a digital network that programs reruns of sitcoms spanning the past few decades, has made the same call.
“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,” a Laff spokesperson told TheWrap. “Therefore, we are removing the original ‘Roseanne’ series from the Laff schedule for the time being, effective immediately.”
Later Tuesday, Hulu confirmed it would be dropping episodes of the “Roseanne” revival. “We support ABC’s decision and are removing the show from Hulu,” a spokesperson for the streaming platform said in a statement to TheWrap.
All of this comes about after star Roseanne Barr tweeted some (extra, even for her) foolishness on Tuesday: “muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby=vj,” Barr wrote in response to a Twitter thread about Valerie Jarrett, a former adviser to Barack Obama.
Barr later apologized, but it wasn’t enough.
“Roseanne’s Twitter statement is abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values, and we have decided to cancel her show,” ABC entertainment president Channing Dungey said in a statement to TheWrap on Tuesday.
Dungey’s boss Bob Iger applauded the decision: “There was only one thing to do here, and that was the right thing,” he tweeted.
The Disney-owned broadcaster also announced it would be replacing tonight’s scheduled repeat of “Roseanne” at 8 p.m. with a rerun of “The Middle.”
Lest you think the repeat angle is a small development, syndication of “Roseanne” is big business. According to Kantar Media, from 1995 to 2017, off-network telecasts of the first nine seasons of “Roseanne” have generated more than $1.2 billion of ad revenue for syndicators and cable networks.
When reached by TheWrap, Viacom did not provide an actual comment on its plan to yank the repeats, though our insider says the networks will fill the now-open time slots with a mix of original series and other acquired programming.
Amazon owns the streaming rights to “Roseanne” reruns. Reps for that platform did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment on its own plan on how the handle the old episodes.
Reid Nakamura contributed to this report.