Walt Disney Co’s ABC network on Tuesday canceled the popular U.S. television comedy “Roseanne” after star Roseanne Barr sparked outrage by comparing a black former Obama administration official to an ape in remarks on Twitter.
The show, a revival of the 1990s hit “Roseanne,” was ABC’s most widely watched show for the TV season that ended last week, drawing more than 18 million viewers on average each week.
“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.
Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger added on Twitter: “There was only one thing to do here, and that was the right thing.”
In a since deleted comment on Twitter, Barr compared former Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett, 61, to an ape. She wrote that if the Islamist political movement “muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby = vj.”
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05.17.2024