In the time it took to compose a 53-character tweet, Roseanne Barr went from a hero that the American Broadcasting Corp (ABC) was banking upon to unemployed.
The network on Tuesday canceled its hit reboot of Roseanne after Barr’s racist tweet, which referred to Valerie Jarrett, adviser to former US president Barack Obama, as a cross between the Muslim Brotherhood and the Planet of the Apes.
Her agent dropped her, and other services pulled Roseanne reruns.
The swift developments rendered US President Donald Trump at least temporarily mum.
Trump, who reveled in the success of Roseanne after Barr’s character in the show came out as a supporter of his presidency, made no mention of the firing in a campaign-style rally in Tennessee on Tuesday evening.
Jarrett, a black woman who said she was “fine” after the slur, urged in an MSNBC special on Tuesday about racism that the incident become a teaching moment.
She said that Bob Iger, CEO of ABC parent Walt Disney Co, called to apologize and told her before it became public that the show was being canceled.
“Tone does start at the top, and we like to look up to our president and feel as though he reflects the values of our country,” Jarrett said. “But I also think that every individual citizen has a responsibility too, and it’s up to all of us to push back. Our government is only going to be as good as we make it be.”
Barr showed no signs of abandoning Twitter, engaging in a series of tweets late on Tuesday that apologized to those who lost their jobs because of the Roseanne cancelation, expressing remorse she was being branded a racist and also retweeting posts that attacked ABC and a meme that included Jarrett.
The supporters’ tweets included posts that criticized ABC and two of its personalities, Joy Behar and Keith Olbermann.
Barr later asked supporters not to defend her.
“I did something unforgiveable so do not defend me,” Barr said on Twitter. “It was 2 in the morning and I was ambien tweeting-it was memorial day too-i went 2 far & do not want it defended-it was egregious Indefensible. I made a mistake I wish I hadn’t but...don’t defend it please.”
Barr was resoundingly condemned on Tuesday, including from many who helped make her show successful.
The executive producer of Roseanne, which came back this spring after being gone for two decades and instantly became TV’s second-most popular comedy, said he supported ABC’s decision.
“Our goal was to promote constructive discussion about the issues that divide us,” Tom Werner said. “It represented the work of hundreds of talented people. I hope the good work done is not totally eclipsed by those abhorrent and offensive comments, and that Roseanne seeks the help she so clearly needs.”
ABC canceled the show in a one-sentence statement from Channing Dungey, the network’s entertainment president, who called it “abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values.”
ABC and Disney had taken notable steps to be more inclusive in its entertainment, and Dungey is the first black to be entertainment president of a major broadcast network.
However, much of its progress would have been threatened if it looked the other way at Barr’s tweet.
She has a history of diving into political conspiracy theories on Twitter, and that is how she ended her Memorial Day weekend.
She criticized US Democratic Party financier George Soros and tweeted that Chelsea Clinton was “Chelsea Soros Clinton,” implying she was married to a nephew of Soros.
Clinton herself corrected Barr online.
Donald Trump Jr retweeted two of Barr’s statements about Soros, although not the remark about Jarrett.
Jarrett’s name came up in response to Twitter commentary that raised her name in relation to an Obama conspiracy theory.
“Muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby=vj,” Barr said on Twitter.
Three weeks earlier, Roseanne was the toast of ABC’s annual presentation of its programming plans to advertisers.
Dungey’s boss, network chief Ben Sherwood, then even jokingly said: “If anyone came to play a drinking game based on how many times we mention Roseanne, you’re welcome.”
Roseanne earned an estimated US$45 million in advertising revenue for ABC through its nine episodes that started airing in March, Kantar Media said.
The firm estimated that the 13 episodes that had been ordered for next season would have brought in as much as US$60 million, with more through repeat episodes.
One of the few network shows about a working-class family, Roseanne attracted 25 million viewers to its first show back in March. Many conservative commentators — and the president himself — attributed at least some of that success to the lead character’s backing of Trump.
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