Hollywood awoke Wednesday to the surprise news that the return of “Roseanne” had delivered 18.2 million viewers including 5.1 million in the key 18-49 demo. In the current world of network television ratings that’s almost astronomical and was a far higher return than ABC ever dreamed of. But, before diving into “Roseanne’s” Emmy chances – which is this point of this post – let’s investigate the “surprise.”
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As you would expect, there was significant media attention given to the return of “Roseanne” almost 21 years after its farewell episode aired in May 1997. In September, NBC’s “Will and Grace’s” return delivered a then-stunning 10.19 million viewers. That program’s rating has since dropped off dramatically with subsequent episodes, but the series has been successful enough for NBC to order a third “return” season and increase the episode order for the second. And, if you haven’t heard, bringing back old favorites is network TV’s new thing. CBS has even gotten into the revival game with more “Murphy Brown” for the 2018-2019 season. Fox already brought back “The X-Files” for two additional seasons, but it hasn’t had the success these comedies have. Netflix revived “Full House” and “Arrested Development,” but famously doesn’t release streaming numbers.
This huge audience for “Roseanne,” however, spurred a number of hot takes about how Hollywood has missed out on telling the stories of Blue Collar families over the past decade or so. And many, especially Fox News, wanted to claim the success was due to Trump fans returning to broadcast TV because of the presence of MAGA supporter Roseanne Barr. Of course, that’s slightly ridiculous as there have been tons of shows during this period focusing on financially struggling families or individuals, but, hey, anything for a talking point, right?
From a ratings perspective (and comparatively), it must be noted that “Roseanne” was a much bigger hit than “Will & Grace” ever was (and the NBC comedy was a big hit). The iconic ABC show was either the #1, 2 or 3 ranked TV show on the air from 1988-1993. Some years it regularly averaged 30 million viewers a week. That’s each week! It was the “Seinfield” and “Friends” of its time. Now, you seriously don’t think nostalgia played a massive part in it’s 18 million viewer return? It’s only been the centerpiece of ABC’s marketing campaign from the beginning. If we lived in an alternate reality where Bill Cosby had never partaken in the rape of so many women, NBC would bring “The Cosby Show” back and in 2018 it would do even better numbers than “Roseanne.” In fact, someone at NBC is likely still trying to figure out just how much they could pay the casts of “Seinfield” and “Friends” to return and still make a profit (don’t get excited, it’s probably not enough to convince those actors in either case).
Of course, the positive critical reaction helped. We’re not so sure an “ignored” audience was that big a part of the response, however, as spouted on Twitter by the likes of Donald Trump, Jr. But, unless there’s a huge drop off next week (and some is likely), ABC has a massive hit on its hands. It also means the network has to pony up for a much bigger Emmy campaign for the series than it was originally expecting to conduct, and it might just be for appearances.
“Roseanne” actually has a strange history with the Television Academy. The show received 25 nominations from during its original run from 1989-1995 although it was completely snubbed during its final two seasons. Out of those nominations it has only four wins. Laurie Metcalf won Outstanding Supporting Actress in A Comedy Series three times in 1992, 1993 and 1994. Roseanne Barr won Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series in 1993. She was nominated three other times and lost. John Goodman was nominated for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series seven times and never won (he finally won a Guest Actor Emmy for “Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip” in 2007 on his 10th try). The series also earned Outstanding Writing, Lighting Direction, Hairstyling, Editing and Art Direction nods while Sara Gilbert landed Supporting Actress nods in 1993 and 1994. Despite that success, there was still one major honor that alluded the program, an Outstanding Comedy Series nomination.
Granted, during this time there were only five slots to pick for and “Roseanne” faced competition from not only Emmy favorites but now classic TV series such as the aforementioned “Murphy Brown,” “Cheers,” “Designing Women,” “The Golden Girls,” “Seinfeld,” “The Larry Sanders Show” and “The Wonder Years.” And yet, some years the less critically lauded “Home Improvement” made the cut as did the hardly referenced “Brooklyn Bridge.” “Roseanne” partially had bad luck, but even then there were stories printed that the Television Academy looked down on the series (and honestly Barr did herself no favors in the gossip rags at the time). Still, we’re talking about a series that won a Peabody. Something didn’t really click.
Fast forward two decades and the membership of the Television Academy has changed dramatically. It’s significantly more diverse, larger and much more focused on prestige television. Over the past five years, the only network nominees have been “Modern Family” (winner from 2010-2014), “Parks and Recreation,” “The Big Bang Theory,” “Black-ish” and “30 Rock.” Over the past four years there have only been two network nominees out of six and then seven nomination slots. Critics favorites such as “The Good Place” and “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” haven’t had a shot of cracking a seven-nominee field. And, now “Roseanne” is supposed to make the cut? Even if it averages 18 million for its nine-episode run that seems like a longshot bet.
That being said, where “Roseanne” can absolutely have an impact is in races such as Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series (Metcalf, nominated in three Emmy categories in 2016 alone), Lead Actor in a Comedy Series (Goodman), Guest Actor/Guest Actress and Writing for a Comedy Series (new executive producer Whitney Cummings helps here). Someone in 1992 would find this hard to believe, but Barr is probably a more polarizing figure now than she was back then and the fact she received a “congratulatory” phone call from Trump doesn’t necessarily help her cause in the Lead Actress race. And that’s even with Julia Louis Dreyfus and “Veep” sitting this one out.
Then again, if “Roseanne” continues to “surprise” anything is possible. Maybe.